{"id":4973,"date":"2012-04-05T23:45:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T19:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/?p=4973"},"modified":"2023-01-18T12:49:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T09:49:02","slug":"press-conference-human-rights-activists-accuse-authorities-of-anti-gypsyism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/press-conference-human-rights-activists-accuse-authorities-of-anti-gypsyism\/","title":{"rendered":"Press conference: \u201cHuman rights activists accuse authorities of anti-Gypsyism\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In 2009, the mayor of Sochi made anti-Gypsy remarks but was never held accountable under criminal or civil laws, declares a Roma activist Alexander Klein, who is preparing to file a claim against the mayor with the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) \u201cMemorial\u201d supported Klein\u2019s position.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A press conference of Anti-Discrimination Centre \u201cMemorial\u201d entitled \u201cHuman rights activists accuse the authorities of anti-Gypsyism\u201d took place in the Independent Press Centre in Moscow on April 5. The following people participated in the event: Alexander Klein, his lawyer from Sochi Marina Dubrovina, lawyer from St. Petersburg Sergey Golubok and ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d attorney Anna Udyarova.<\/p>\n<p>The main topic of the press conference were the statements the mayor of Sochi Anatoliy Pakhomov made, from which can be referred the \u201cdebasement of all the Roma people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Let us remind that at the conference on October 19, 2009, Anatoly Pakhomov proposed to send the homeless and the Gypsies to the construction sites for the Olympic Games and force them to work there. \u201cIt is necessary to transport the Gypsies and the homeless to the construction sites and force them to work there, like in days the Soviet Union,\u201d announced Pakhomov, who was a city administrator then, and whose words were quoted by the federal and regional mass media.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alexander Klein: Anatoly Pakhomov made a racist declaration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After the community leaders found out about Anatoly Pakhomov\u2019s remarks, they filed a civil lawsuit to defend their national dignity and recover compensation for moral harm, told Alexander Klein.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn October of 2009 the mayor of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov, while performing his official duties, in the presence of reporters, made a racist statement. Pakhomov publically, using the mass media, committed an act that was intended to incite hatred and enmity toward the Roma people, and debase the Roma based on their nationality,\u201d asserts Alexander Klein.<script src=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to him, Klein appealed to the Sochi\u2019s prosecutor\u2019s office; however, the supervising committee refused to initiate criminal proceedings against Anatoly Pakhomov, and the court denied the petition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is interesting that the mayor never refuted his public remarks,\u201d noted Alexander Klein.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, documents, related to the claim against Anatoly Pakhomov, are being prepared to be transferred to the \u201cinternational authorities,\u201d since the \u201cRussian courts have turned out to be ineffective,\u201d states Alexander Klein.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA person of such rank, like Pakhomov, a mayor, does not have the right to make racist statements, offend and debase a group of people. It is necessary to prevent such behavior,\u201d believes the Roma activist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marina Dubrovina: the court closed the case because of the lack of evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alexander Klein appealed for support to ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d, told the centre\u2019s attorney Anna Udyarova. The case was picked up by lawyer Marina Dubrovina, who continued to maintain the Roma activist\u2019s position in the Sochi and regional courts.<\/p>\n<p>According to her, Dubrovina tried to hold Pakhomov criminally liable based on Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, \u201cIncitement of hatred or enmity, but is equal to the debasement of human dignity.\u201d The lawyer asserts that the prosecutor\u2019s office has \u201cexplicitly drawn out\u201d the inspection of the case related to Anatoly Pakhomov\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt felt like the claim was being ignored. Only when I came, in person, to the investigation department, I was told that my claim to incite criminal proceedings was denied because \u201cthe statement was sent to an expert examination,\u201d told Marina Dubrovina.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the linguistic expertise, a case was made to recover compensation for moral harm. Moreover, the appeal about the denial of initiation of criminal proceedings was also disputed.<\/p>\n<p>Due to discovery of new evidence, the case was returned for another review. \u201cPakhomov himself, naturally, did not go to the legal proceedings. In general, the representatives of the Sochi administration were surprised \u2013 how is it possible that criminal proceedings could be initiated against Pakhomov?\u201d informed Dubrovina.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the case review was discontinued due to insufficient evidence against Pakhomov. \u201cThe defense counsel claimed that there is no audio nor video recording of the plenary session. We had the transcript in our hands, but it was not notarized by anyone. The court did not accept it. The mayor declared that he did not pronounce that phrase, and blamed it all on the reporters\u2019 unprofessionalism,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe chief of the city Sochi, Pakhomov A.N., who was interrogated as part of the investigation, explained that at the plenary session, a report was being heard on the violations of the law in the city of Sochi, in which representatives of various nationalities were mentioned; negative remarks in relation to the Roma people were not made,\u201d as noted in the Sochi\u2019s Central District Court\u2019s decision from October 7, 2011, a copy of which is uploaded on the court\u2019s official website.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sergey Golubok: we want to take the case to an international level<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After unsuccessful attempts to hold Anatoly Pakhomov accountable in Russia, the decision was made to appeal to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, explained Alexander Klein\u2019s lawyer, Sergey Golubok.<\/p>\n<p>He reminded that Russia had signed the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. \u201cThe Fourth Article of the Convention requires all authorities to hold criminally accountable all those, who promote ideas based on hatred and persecution of any kind of race. In the first place, this extends to all government authorities,\u201d informed Sergey Golubok.<\/p>\n<p>Noting that, although the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is not as well known as the European Court for Human Rights, nevertheless, Alexander Klein and his lawyers intend to maintain their position specifically in the United Nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to take the case to an international level. Yes, the Committee is not as well known as the European Court for Human Rights, it is not capable of collecting monetary compensation. But this agency, working for decades, is capable of understanding \u201canti-Gypsyism,\u201d \u2013 remarked Sergey Golubok.<\/p>\n<p>The lawyer reminded, that in 2008, the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination noted in its evaluation that a problem of anti-Gypsyism exists in Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the materials of: Oleg Krasnov; source: reporter from the \u201cCaucasion Knot\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2009, the mayor of Sochi made anti-Gypsy remarks but was never held accountable under criminal or civil laws, declares a Roma activist Alexander Klein, who is preparing to file a claim against the mayor with the UN Committee on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[636,2],"tags":[160],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-4973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-about-us","category-news","tag-roma-rights-en"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"medium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"pub-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"post-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcicon":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",48,48,false],"wcsquare":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcstandard":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcbig":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcfixedheightsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcfixedheightmedium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcfixedheight":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wccarouselsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wccarousel":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false],"wcslider":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/GR-VCR-125x1251.jpg",125,125,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>In 2009, the mayor of Sochi made anti-Gypsy remarks but was never held accountable under criminal or civil laws, declares a Roma activist Alexander Klein, who is preparing to file a claim against the mayor with the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) \u201cMemorial\u201d supported Klein\u2019s position. A press conference of Anti-Discrimination Centre \u201cMemorial\u201d entitled \u201cHuman rights activists accuse the authorities of anti-Gypsyism\u201d took place in the Independent Press Centre in Moscow on April 5. The following people participated in the event: Alexander Klein, his lawyer from Sochi Marina Dubrovina, lawyer from&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/category\/news\/publications-about-us\/media-about-us\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Media about us<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30825,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4973\/revisions\/30825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"strategy_cases","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategy_cases?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"campaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaign?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"filter-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/filter-content?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=4973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}