Somebody sent me this excerpt, titled "ADL's Plan to Re-Educate Russia", with a note attached: "Please pay special attention to the 'Educational Initiatives' section. It's surprisingly candid."
Here it is, for your elucidation and to invite comparison as to what has already happened on the American Continent:
"Today the former Soviet Union's weak democratic structures allow these manifestations of ethnic hatred and violence to go unchecked. Ultra-nationalist forces . . . do not display concern for human rights, and demonstrate harsh views toward minority groups. The transition toward a democratic and pluralistic society in Russia continues to proceed slowly, as does the development of an appropriate infrastructure to support economic development, law enforcement and minority rights.
The Government of Russia must undertake a comprehensive and sustained campaign to counteract these increasingly vocal voices of intolerance and divisiveness. Such a campaign must be fought through legislation, law enforcement, education and popular culture.
1. Legislative/Law Enforcement Initiatives: While Soviet-era laws intended to combat fascist propaganda and extremism remain on the books in Russia, police and judicial enforcement and implementation of these laws are lackluster. In addition, elected officials are immune from prosecution for inciting ethnic hatred. President Yeltsin has pledged to initiate legislation to counter anti-Semitism and extremism, but the Russian Parliament, comprised largely of Communists and nationalists, is not expected to pass such legislation.
Recommended Action:
The Government of Russia must enact more precise hate crime and hate speech laws. The Government should remove immunity for elected officials suspected of inciting ethnic hatred. If the Duma is unwilling or unable, the President must initiate legislation to counter anti-Semitism and extremism through Presidential Decree.
A high-level official in the Justice Ministry should have oversight ensuring implementation of existing hate-crime and hate-speech laws. National and local task forces should be established to coordinate this implementation. A special unit of law enforcement should be charged with monitoring hate groups. A training program for law enforcement should be established to instruct them on how to recognize hate crimes and to sensitize law enforcement in dealing with victims of hate crimes.
2. Educational Initiatives: The Government of Russia and opinion-molders in that society must initiate an intensive and sustained campaign promoting democratization, a civil society, tolerance, and the combating of racism, prejudice and anti-Semitism. This campaign should involve high-level government representatives, the business community, religious leaders, educators, athletes, musicians, actors and writers and be conducted in urban and rural areas.
Effort might include the following components:
Advertising campaign in popular media including public service announcements (PSAs) advertisements in newspapers, public areas, to feature prominent Russians in popular culture speaking out against hate.(see ADL's sports personality poster series and PSAs with popular television personalities)
In the Russian school system, a pro-democracy, pro-tolerance campaign should be initiated, including integration into the curriculum, posters and special student events. Popular television programs, including dramas, talk shows, variety shows, should be encouraged to integrate an anti-hate message into story lines and general programming. (Similar campaigns have been undertaken in the United States, with television networks setting aside one week for its programs to integrate timely issues, such as drug abuse.)"
Thought for the Day:
"Why hasn't the Holocaust, the single most outrageous crime in civilized history, created a desperate, unquenchable thirst for enforceable international norms that make human-rights abuses intolerable anytime and anywhere they occur?"
(Madame Justice Rosalie Abella of the Ontario Court of Appeal, a prominent member of Canada's Jewish community, soon to be a Supreme Court Judge (if the present agitation continues ) and wife of Irving Abella, professor of history and past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, as quoted in the Globe_and_Mail, January 29, 1999)
Back to Table of Contents of the March 1999 ZGrams