Conference Papers and Other Documents

On July 31 and August 4, 2008, at session number 73 of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), there were examined the combined 18th and 19th periodic reports on the Russian Federation concerning the fulfillment of its commitments to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), covering the period from February 2002 to July 2006.

In accordance with the United Nations CERD procedures, a shadow report was prepared by the Human Rights Centre "Memorial' and the Information and Analytical Centre "Sova', in collaboration with other NGOs.

We have published a short summary of the report.

On October 9-10, 2007, in Cordoba, an OSCE conference on intolerance and discrimination against Muslims took place. Galina Kozhevnikiva participated in the conference and we publish her speech.

In September 24-25, 2007 SOVA Center took part in OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw.
We publish the full text of the intervention prepared for the session "Combating intolerance and discrimination and promoting mutual respect and understanding" by International Helsinki Federation and SOVA Center.

On May 3, 2007, in Berlin, EU and Russia hold the fifth round of their Human Rights Consultations. The SOVA Center took part in the traditional preliminary meeting of the representatives of Russian and international NGOs and the European officials who participate in the consultations and presented the following short report and recommendations to the authorities on the problem of misuse of the anti-extremism legislation.

On May 3, 2007, in Berlin, EU and Russia hold the fifth round of their Human Rights Consultations. The SOVA Center took part in the traditional preliminary meeting of the representatives of Russian and international NGOs and the European officials who participate in the consultations and presented the following short report and recommendations to the authorities on the problem of hate crimes in Russia.

On March 29-30, 2007 in Vienna, the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Freedom of Assembly, Association and Expression took place. Russian NGOs the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, the Center for Development of Democracy and Human Rights, and Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (JURIX) came out with recommendations to the OSCE participating states. We are publishing these recommendations.

On March 29, 2007 in Vienna, at the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Freedom of Assembly, Association and Expression, the SOVA Center organized a briefing dedicated to the situation with these basic freedoms in Russia. Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of SOVA Center, presented his report at the briefing. We are publishing the report.

November 9-10, 2006, an ODIHR working meeting on hate crime data gathering took place in Vienna.

We publish a small survey of racist and neo-nazi violence in Russia. This material was prepared for the OSCE meeting on the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw in October, 2006. This publication includes also statistics of the racist assaults in 2004-2006 and information on the hate crimes verdicts.