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SOVA Center for Information and Analysis is a human rights nongovernmental organization and think tank that conducts sociological research on development of nationalism and racism in modern Russia.

History and Structure

Center was established in October 2002 by people who worked for the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Russian research center "Panorama" [1]. In 2003 with the help of Henry M. Jackson Foundation was established organisation website.

The activity of center consists of several separate "projects":

• Nationalism and xenofobia
• Resistance to radical nationalism
• Language of hate
• Against hate in the Internet

• Religion in secular society
• Illegitimate antiextremism (started in 2007)
• Antisemitism (defunct since 2006)
• New Conservatism in Russia (defunct since 2004)
• Democracy on siege (defunct since 2006)

The director of the SOVA Center is Alexander Verkhovsky. The deputy director is Galina Kozhevnikova.

Policy and analysis

SOVA Center produces regular reports and recommendations regarding hate crimes that are widely used and cited by OSCE, Amnesty International, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and other human rights and political organizations. ^{[1] [2][3][4][5][6] [7][8][9][10]}. It also monitors the situation with freedom of religion in Russia.

Prevention of hate speech

In its workshops, including under the auspices of the OSCE, SOVA Center advocates for the prevention of hate speech on the Russian internet^[11] and for the facilitation of alternate constructive dialogue by:

• "tracing hate-sites;
• "establishing contacts with hosting providers in order to abolish such sites;
• "creating special discussion environment around the issue of hatred in the Internet, in order to morally stimulate hosting providers (who should be a part of such discussion), to cut off the inadmissible content;
• "organizing work with catalogues and search systems in order to work out methods of pushing hate-sites from the leading positions and offering users, by their special requests, various resources not including hate speech...."

Per its position statements, SOVA Center does not, however, support eliminating hate speech in a fashion which endangers free speech^[11].

SOVA Center's activities include presenting seminars, such as one held October 26, 2006, organized together with the administrative office of the President of the Russian Federation , titled "Incitement to hatred and enmity: legal counter-measures and law enforcement". Approximately 50 representatives from committees of the State Duma, Federal Service, General Procurato's office, Russian Academy of the Sciences, and other organizations attended. The participants agreed that while current laws sufficiently address hate crimes, improvements are still required. Of particular concern was insuring current statutes are not broadened to enable arbitrary interpretation and enforcement.^[12]

On July 2, 2007, SOVA Center organized a round table dedicated to discussing and refining amendments to the Criminal Code and anti-extremism laws regarding the "incitement to hatred and enmity" criminal offence^[13]. The bill was approved on July 11, 2007 and came into force on August 12, 2007. Summarizing acts of extremism included under the legislation:

• acts of force against the constitution and the integrity of the Russian Federation;
• public justification for terrorism and terrorist activities;
• fomenting social, racial, national or religious dissent;
• propaganda against equality regardless of social status, race, nationality, religion, or language;
• interference with the rights of individuals based on social status, race, nationality, religion, or language;
• interference with the right to vote by violence or threat of violence;
• interfering with the legal activities of public institutions and organizations, unions, religious organizations by violence or threat of violence;
• Nazi propaganda and the display and use of Nazi symbols;
• public support for acts called for in extremist publications; such support is viewed equal to producing and storing such materials;
• deliberate false accusations against anyone representing or that is the staff of the state office of the Russian Federation in the performance of their duties of any of the criminal acts of extremism described herein;
• organization, preparation, or instigation of any of the criminal acts of extremism described herein;
• financing any of the criminal acts of extremism described herein, including support of propagation by training, publications, telephone or other forms of communication, or rendering information services.

Subsequent legislative attempts to address Internet-based hate speech specifically, however, have failed to pass, most recently in October, 2008.

Controversies

State Duma Deputy and Judicial Committee Deputy Chairman Andrey Savelyev filed a criminal libel complaint against a number of liberally oriented NGOs on July 13, 2007, including SOVA Center. Savelyev cited use of the descriptive terms "ultra-right" and "racist" in article on the SOVA Center web site. He pointed out that the ascribing such qualities constitutes a criminal accusation according to the then newly established "anti-extremism laws." The court case remains open at end of 2008.^[14]

External links

• Official website (English)
• Reports and analytics of SOVA
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Alexander Verkhovsky from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Offcical blog of SOVA Center (in russian)
• Blog of Alexander Verkhovsky (in russian)

• Working sessions facilitated by the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis at the OSCE Conference, Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Warsaw, 29 September–10 October 2008

See also

• Human rights in Russia
• Racism in modern Russia
• Movement Against Illegal Immigration
• Category:Russian nationalism

References