Conference: Islam in the post-Soviet Caucasus - Legal, Social and Political Aspects

Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (http://www.soas.ac.uk/cccac/)

B102, Brunei Gallery
SOAS
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London
9am- 6pm

A one-day conference about (mostly) contemporary developments concerning the role of Islam in politics, society, culture and armed conflict across the Russian North Caucasus, with local, Russian and international experts presenting field and archive-based research.

Speakers/Chairs:
Anna Zelkina (SOAS, Centre for Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus)
Domitilla Sagramoso (Kings College, London University)
Moshe Gammer (Professor, Department of the Middle East History, Tel-Aviv University)
Aude Merlin (Universite Libre de Bruxelles)
Ahmet Yarlykapov (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)
Naima Neflyasheva (Caucasian Studies Centre, Institute of African Studies, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)
Michail Roschin (Institute for Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)
Amir Navruzov (Institute of History Archeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Science, Daghestan)
Shamil Shikhaliev (Department of Oriental Manuscripts, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Science, Mahachkala)
Vladimir Bobrovnikov (Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)
Sylvia Serrano (Centre d’Etudes du Monde Russe et Sovietique - EHESS/CNRS, Paris)
Musa Basnoukaev (Department of Economics, The Chechen State University, Groznyi)
Galina Khizrieva (Russian Institute of Cultural Studies, Moscow)
Ahmet Sultygov (PhD Candidate, Russian Institute of Cultural Studies, Moscow)

Download a detailed schedule, including titles of presentations, here. To register, please email Anna Zelkina.

Between war and peace, tradition and modernity: women in Chechnya and their role in rebuilding, development and social change
A presentation by Gistam Sakaeva

Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California (ICCNC)
1433 Madison Street
Oakland
7 pm

Gistam Sakaeva is a board member and project officer of the Chechnya-based women's organization Doveriye. Under her leadership, Doveriye has been running bold and far-reaching programs for women in Chechnya, in areas like income-generation, psychological help for
victims of rape during war and campaigns against gender-based violence. Ms. Sakaeva is a consummate expert on gender issues in Chechnya and an outspoken leader for change. Her work has been recognized by the International Rescue Committee's Women's Commission,
which has chosen Gistam as a winner of its 2008 Voices of Courage Award. Before working with Doveriye, Ms. Sakaeva had a decade-long career with international humanitarian aid organizations like Care, Doctors Without Borders and Handicap international in the North
Caucasus. In 2007, she spent a two-month fellowship at the International Center for Tolerance Education in New York, during which time she studied disability and women's programs in the US. She returned to New York in March 2008 to attend the annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women as an NGO delegate, the first ever from Chechnya. During both visits she gave presentations about her work at universities across the US, including Cornell University, Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley. She holds a degree in English language and literature from Chechen State University. Ms. Sakaeva is currently visiting the US to receive the 2008 Voices of Courage Award

The event is open to the public and sponsored by the Chechnya Advocacy Network, American Friends Service Committee, ICCNC and Interfaith Women for Peace.

The Russia Project and the International Women’s Program cordially invite you to a discussion on

Women’s Rights and Social Change in Chechnya

With guest speaker Gistam Sakaeva (Doveriye - Reliance) and an introduction by Rachel Denber (Human Rights Watch)

Open Society Institute
400 W. 59th Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues)
New York, New York
3rd Floor
2pm – 3pm

Gistam Sakaeva is a board member and project officer of the Chechnya-based women’s organization Reliance. Under her leadership, Reliance has been running bold and far-reaching programs for women in Chechnya, in areas like income-generation, psychological help for victims of rape during war and campaigns against gender-based violence. Her work has been recognized by the International Rescue Committee’s Women’s Commission, which selected Sakaeva to receive its 2008 Voices of Courage Award. Before working with Reliance, Sakaeva had a decade-long career with international humanitarian aid organizations in the North Caucasus including Care, Doctors Without Borders and Handicap International.

Rachel Denber is Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. Prior to her current post, Denber was the head of Human Rights Watch's Moscow office from 1992–1997. She has written about and traveled widely throughout Russia, the southern Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Baltic states.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Please send your RSVP to events@sorosny.org with the event title in the subject line, and include your full name and affiliation.

Note: seating may be limited.

“Berkat and Marsho” – Happiness and Freedom

A documentary about the formative years and experiences of Chechen children growing up in refugee camps and post-war Chechnya, followed by a discussion with Jana Hradilkova, co-founder and program director of the Czech civic association “Berkat” working with the Chechen children.

A Chechnya Advocacy Network/Harriman Institute Event

Room 1219
International Affairs Building
Columbia University
420 West 118th Street
New York
12pm

About Marsho and Berkat (David Ealek / Czech Republic / 2007 / 52 min)
The children's dance group Marsho came into being in the Sputnik refugee camp on the Chechen-Ingush border. Over 9,000 Chechen refugees have been living here for more than five years. Following the massacre of civilians in Chechnya, an organisation called Berkat was set up in the Czech Republic with the aim of helping victims, in particular women. In 2003 Berkat set up a tour by the Marsho children’s dance group in the Czech Republic. The aim was both to allow the children to experience something other than the horrors of war, and to draw the attention of Czechs to the desperate situation in a country with a media blackout. In 2006 Berkat decided to invite the children again. In the meantime the Sputnik camp had been broken up and the children had been scattered around Chechnya. Many things had changed in their lives. They themselves had also changed and their reception in the Czech Republic was different too. They were no longer pitiful war children grateful for cuddly toys. Suddenly they had become demanding young people with an uncertain future seen by some as young terrorists.

Berkat has worked with Marsho since 2001. The film was produced from footage shot over three years and includes an introduction to the conflict in Chechnya. It screened at the Czech film festival “One World”, where it was voted an audience favorite. In addition to interviews with journalist and Berkat founder Petra Prochazkova and Berkat program director Jana Hradilkova, there are interviews with young Chechens with whom Berkat has been working since they were children. The film is fundamentally about the importance of building lasting relationships between an isolated Chechnya and the open societies of the outside world.

A documentary about the formative years and experiences of Chechen children growing up in refugee camps and post-war Chechnya, followed by a discussion with Jana Hradilkova, co-founder and program director of the Czech civic association “Berkat” working with the Chechen children.

An American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC) at Freedom House event

Goethe Institute
812 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC
6-8 pm

About Marsho and Berkat (David Ealek / Czech Republic / 2007 / 52 min)
The children's dance group Marsho came into being in the Sputnik refugee camp on the Chechen-Ingush border. Over 9,000 Chechen refugees have been living here for more than five years. Following the massacre of civilians in Chechnya, an organisation called Berkat was set up in the Czech Republic with the aim of helping victims, in particular women. In 2003 Berkat set up a tour by the Marsho children’s dance group in the Czech Republic. The aim was both to allow the children to experience something other than the horrors of war, and to draw the attention of Czechs to the desperate situation in a country with a media blackout. In 2006 Berkat decided to invite the children again. In the meantime the Sputnik camp had been broken up and the children had been scattered around Chechnya. Many things had changed in their lives. They themselves had also changed and their reception in the Czech Republic was different too. They were no longer pitiful war children grateful for cuddly toys. Suddenly they had become demanding young people with an uncertain future seen by some as young terrorists.

Berkat has worked with Marsho since 2001. The film was produced from footage shot over three years and includes an introduction to the conflict in Chechnya. It screened at the Czech film festival “One World”, where it was voted an audience favorite. In addition to interviews with journalist and Berkat founder Petra Prochazkova and Berkat program director Jana Hradilkova, there are interviews with young Chechens with whom Berkat has been working since they were children. The film is fundamentally about the importance of building lasting relationships between an isolated Chechnya and the open societies of the outside world.

Please send your RSVPs to intern-acpc@freedomhouse.org.

Russia and the Circassians: An Internal Problem or an International Matter?

Carr Center for Human Rights Policy/ Harvard University
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies/ Harvard University
Jamestown Foundation
Circassian Cultural Institute

John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JFK St., Taubman building, Nye A,
Cambridge, MA 02138

Full-day seminar on the history and contemporary politics of the Circassian ethnic group in Russia and the diaspora, with experts from Russia, the US, Canada, Europe and Turkey. Details can be downloaded here.

Europe’s Darkest Corner: Photographs from Chechnya 1994-2007
Photo exhibition and conference

Co-sponsored by ECRE, FIDH, Pax Christi Flanders, Human Rights Watch, Norwegian Refugee Council, Etudes Sans Frontieres, IDMC, EPP-ED and MEPs Bart Staes, Helene Flautre and Patrick Gaubert

Photographs by Heidi Bradner - Thomas Dworzak - Mikhail Galustov- Stanley Greene - James Hill - Musa Sadulayev

Reception:
ASP, Rez de Chaussee
Couloir, European Parliament
April 7, 2008, 18:45pm

The photo exhibition will be on view from 7 to 11 April 2008 in the same location.

This reception will be followed the next day by a conference on: Where is Chechnya heading and what role can the EU play?

Eastman 300
Rue Belliard 135
1047 Brussels
April 8, 2008
9.30-12.00

9h30: Welcome - Bart Staes (MEP, Greens)

9h45: Introduction: Overview of positions of the European Parliament on
Chechnya - Helene Flautre (MEP, Greens, chairwoman of the sub-Committee on Human Rights)

10h00: Current human rights situation in Chechnya and North Caucasus
Natalya Estemirova (Memorial)

10h30: Racial discrimination against Chechens in Russia
Svetlana Gannushkina (Civic Assistance Committee)

11h00: Break

11h10: Screening of Human Rights Watch Film on European Court of Human Rights

11h20: Fight against impunity: implementing ECHR rulings
Tanya Lokshina (Human Rights Watch) and Arbi Chitayev, Chechen ECHR applicant

11h50: Conclusions

Between war and peace, tradition and modernity: women in Chechnya and their role in rebuilding, development and social change
A presentation by Gistam Sakaeva

A Chechnya Advocacy Network/Harriman Institute Event

Room 1219
International Affairs Building
Columbia University
420 West 118th Street
New York
4:15pm

Gistam Sakaeva is a board member and project officer of the Chechnya-based women’s organization Doveriye. Under her leadership, Doveriye has been running bold and far-reaching programs for women in Chechnya, in areas like income-generation, psychological help for victims of rape during war and campaigns against gender-based violence. Ms. Sakaeva is a consummate expert on gender issues in Chechnya and an outspoken leader for change. Her work has been recognized by the International Rescue Committee’s Women’s Commission, which has chosen Gistam as a winner of its 2008 Voices of Courage Award. Before working with Doveriye, Ms. Sakaeva had a decade-long career with international humanitarian aid organizations like Care, Doctors Without Borders and Handicap international in the North Caucasus. She holds a degree in English language and literature from Chechen State University. Ms. Sakaeva is visiting New York to attend the 2008 session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women as an NGO delegate.

The event is open to the public.

Columbia University's Russian International Association presents: "Twelve", a new film by Nikita Mikhalkov

The aftermath of the War in Chechnya. A Lecture by Gistam Sakaeva

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event
Co-sponsored by the Central and Southwest Asia Studies Program/UM and Thomas Goltz, Visiting Scholar at UM

Central and Southwest Asia Studies Program
Old Journalism Building
Lounge Room on 3rd floor
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana
12:30-2:00pm

Gistam Sakaeva has been an aid worker since the start of the first Chechen war in 1994, when she was recruited by Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp. In addition to Doctors Without Borders, she has worked for Handicap International, Care Canada and the OSCE. She is currently a project officer for the Chechen NGO “Reliance”, where she runs income-generating programs for vulnerable women and those with disabled family members.

Gistam holds a degree in English, Russian and Chechen from Grozny University, and is currently a Fellow of the International Center for Tolerance Education, New York, and project officer at Reliance, a Chechen NGO.

The event is open to the public.

A moderated discussion of Tony Wood's new book "Chechnya. The Case for
Independence"

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

Lindsay Rogers Room (7th floor)
International Affairs Building
Columbia University
420 West 118th Street
New York
6pm

With the author, Tony Wood. Discussant to be announced.

Tony Wood's book "Chechnya. The Case for Independence” was published in 2007 by Verso Books and provides an analysis of Chechnya's pro-independence movement. It examines the question "whether or not the Chechens have the right to a state of their own". The book has been reviewed by Charles King in the Times Literary Supplement at http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25346-2646373,00.html . A debate between Tom de Waal and Tony Wood earlier this year at the Frontline Club in London can be watchedhere: http://www.frontlineclub.com/club_videoevents.php?event=190.

Tony Wood is assistant editor at New Left Review in London; his writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement and Art Monthly, among other publications.

Disclaimer: According to our mission statement, the Chechnya Advocacy Network, "does not side, and has never sided, with any of the parties involved [in the political and armed conflicts in Chechnya] nor do we promote any specific political outcomes". Therefore, CAN does not support the central tenet of Tony’s book, i.e. independence. However, in line with our goal of promoting research and debate, and because the author values a critical, vigorous discussion of his arguments, we are assisting Tony Wood and Verso Books with this US book tour.

The Impact of War on the Population of Chechnya, with Gistam Sakaeva

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

Course "War and Morality", Professor David Kinsella

Ondine room 218
Portland State University
1912 SW 6th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97201
9am-10am

Gistam Sakaeva has been an aid worker since the start of the first war in 1994, when she was recruited by Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp. In addition to Doctors Without Borders, she has worked for Handicap International, Care Canada and the OSCE. She is currently a project officer for the Chechen NGO “Reliance”, where she runs income-generating programs for vulnerable women and those with disabled family members.
Gistam’s main interests are gender-based violence and the marginalization of mine victims and otherwise disabled children and adults in Chechnya. In her experience, the war and its side-effects of violence, power disparity and a harsher social climate have had a particularly detrimental effect on already marginalized groups. For example, in today’s Chechnya, children with mine injuries as well as those with congenital birth defects are de facto excluded from all schooling, cannot get the care and rehabilitation they need and are often simply hidden away at home. Domestic violence has become more common, and women are also faced with various forms of sexual exploitation. Gistam holds a degree in English, Russian and Chechen from Grozny University. As an ICTE Fellow in the US, Gistam intends to learn from the comparative experiences of organizations working with disabled children and victims of domestic violence. She also aims to raise awareness of these issues among donors, experts and partner organizations.

The event is open to the public.

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

83 Dwinelle Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
5pm

Sponsored by:
Institute for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, UC Berkeley
Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights
American Friends Service Committee, San Francisco
Chechnya Advocacy Network, New York

Gistam Sakaeva has been an aid worker since the start of the first war in 1994, when she was recruited by Doctors Without Borders from a refugee camp. In addition to Doctors Without Borders, she has worked for Handicap International, Care Canada and the OSCE. She is currently a project officer for the Chechen NGO “Reliance”, where she runs income-generating programs for vulnerable women and those with disabled family members.
Gistam’s main interests are gender-based violence and the marginalization of mine victims and otherwise disabled children and adults in Chechnya. In her experience, the war and its side-effects of violence, power disparity and a harsher social climate have had a particularly detrimental effect on already marginalized groups. For example, in today’s Chechnya, children with mine injuries as well as those with congenital birth defects are de facto excluded from all schooling, cannot get the care and rehabilitation they need and are often simply hidden away at home. Domestic violence has become more common, and women are also faced with various forms of sexual exploitation. Gistam holds a degree in English, Russian and Chechen from Grozny University. As an ICTE Fellow in the US, Gistam intends to learn from the comparative experiences of organizations working with disabled children and victims of domestic violence. She also aims to raise awareness of these issues among donors, experts and partner organizations.

October 7, 2007:

The Life of Anna Politkovskaya: A Panel Discussion

Refectory, Union Theological Seminary
Broadway and 121st Street
5:00pm

The Harriman Institute and the Barnard Slavic, Theatre and Music Departments present: A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya

To reserve tickets, please call the Box Office at 212-854-5638.

The Harriman Institute and the Barnard Slavic, Theatre and Music Departments present: A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya

To reserve tickets, please call the Box Office at 212-854-5638.

Screening of "Alexandra" at New York Film Festival

Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Building
Columbus Circle
New York
6pm (10/04); 1:15pm (10/06)

The 2007 New York Fim Festival at Lincoln Center presents two screenings of "Alexandra", the most recent feature film by Aleksandr Sokurov. Best known in the West for his stunning "Russian Ark" (2002), Sokurov is one of Russia's most important contemporary directors. "Alexandra", a French-Russian co-production, tells the story of a Russian grandmother (played by opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya, the widow of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich), who travels to Chechnya to visit her grandson, who serves there as an officer. Alexandra becomes a witness to the soldiers' life on an army base, but also meets local civilians. Shot in and around Grozny, "Alexandra" has been called Sokurov's "most directly political work for years".

For more information and to buy tickets, visit the film's website.

One Year after Anna Politkovskaya's Murder:
Where Is Russia Heading and What Is the Position of the EU in this Regard?

Please RSVP to Juliette Le Dore.

Documentary screening “I Remain the Same"

Tropfest@Tribeca
World Financial Center Plaza, Battery Park City
New York
8pm (start of screenings of 16 short films)

In early summer 2007 the Achilles Track Club, an organization that helps disabled athletes participate in mainstream sports, brought three young Chechens to New York for medical treatment, new prosthetics and participation in sporting events. Chechnya Advocacy Network volunteers assisted the visitors with interpreting, doctor’s visits, sightseeing and some regional travel. You can read press coverage about the young Chechens' time in New York here and here.

One of the young men, Adam Mezhiev, is 22 years old and lost a leg when he was ten. While Adam was in New York, two American film-makers made a shot documentary about him, titled “I Remain the Same” It will be shown at “Tropfest”, which is part of the Tribeca Film Festival and dedicated to short films (more here). Adam has since returned to Chechnya, but hopes to come back to New York and run in the annual New York Marathon.

The open air Tropfest is free and open to the public. From 5pm until 8pm, when the screening of short films start, there will be live music.

Godislav - A play by Nancy Beverly, directed by Susan Lee

Miles Memorial Playhouse
1130 Lincoln Boulevard,
Santa Monica, CA
8pm (Fridays and Saturdays); 3pm (Sundays)

An original play by Nancy Beverly, premiering on August 3, about an American documentary filmmaker and a Chechen doctor who has survived the wars and become a refugee. Ms. Beverly and her collaborators are happy to arrange for discounted group admission rates and/or a talkback session with the writer and the cast after performances (contact Nancy). Go to www.playwrights6.com/ for more information.

Join us to welcome Raphael Glucksmann, Aurelia Chaudagne, Milana Bakhaeva and Raisa Borshchigova from the French student-led organization Etudes Sans Frontieres - Studies Without Borders (ESF).

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Columbia University
420 West 118th Street
New York
5:30pm to 8pm

ESF (www.etudessansfrontieres.org) is a student-led initiative that has been bringing students from war-torn countries to European universities since 2003 and would now like to expand its successful approach of student leadership and peer guidance to US universities. Raphael and Aurelia, two founding members of ESF and among its current leadership, are in NY with the two of the program's fellows, Milana and Raisa from Chechnya, to meet with US students and discuss their planned expansion of ESF in the US.

ESF is based on a revolutionary approach in which students take the lead, unlike traditional exchange programs which are run by foundations, governments and university administrations. This model allows students to strengthen their universities' global commitment, bring diversity to their campus and change the life of talented young people from some of the most troubled parts of the world. The success rate of ESF compares well to conventional fellowship programs, due to student volunteers' contribution: upon arrival, fellows from Chechnya, Rwanda or other suffering parts of the world are embraced by a group of peers that assist them with orientation and language classes, advise them on their course of study, help them build professional networks and offer friendship and support.

Etudes Sans Frontieres was founded in 2003 by a group of French students, who wanted to take fast, pragmatic action to help their peers in war-torn Chechnya by giving them an education and introducing them to a peaceful, democratic society. Through volunteer action, they brought a highly motivated group of young Chechens to France, enrolled them in graduate and undergraduate programs at elite universities and assisted them with internships and professional development. In fall 2006, the first class of ESF students graduated, and they have since then been returning to Chechnya where they use their new skills in local NGOs, media and humanitarian organizations. Since its inception, ESF has expanded to universities across France as well as Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy and Canada. The organization has also started recruiting students in other conflict-ridden parts of the world, like Rwanda, Congo and Afghanistan.

If you are interested in learning more about ESF and/or would like to bring this initiative to your own school, please join us for snacks, drinks and conversation.

Please RSVP to can@chechnyaadvocacy.org to help us gauge how many guests we will have!

Co-sponsored by the Russian international association at Columbia University and the Harriman Institute

Directions: Take the 1 train to 116th street/Columbia University, cross the campus towards Amsterdam Avenue and enter the IA building on 118th street. Or take the M11 bus going uptown on Amsterdam Avenue to 118th street.

Reading from “Danser sur les ruines, une jeunesse tchetchene” (Dancing on ruins. A Chechen youth) by Chechen author Milana Terloeva A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event The Tank @ C:U 279 Church Street New York 6:30pm

“Dancing on Ruins: Youth in Chechnya Today”

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event, in cooperation with the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus

The two Russian-Chechen wars have left the educational infrastructure of Chechnya in disrepair, the economy destroyed, and an entire generation of Chechen youth isolated from the rest of the country and the world, with little or no opportunities in their future. Two talented young Chechens, Raisa Borshchigova and Milana Bakhaeva, have come to the United States to tell us about the everyday reality their peers face, including the experiences described in Milana's book, “Dancing on Ruins: A Chechen Childhood”.

Freedom House
1319 18th Street NW
2pm

Milana Bakhaeva:Growing up in the midst of two Russian-Chechen wars, during which her home town was destroyed and her family displaced, Milana managed to attend and graduate from the Grozny University. Upon completion, she was one of the first Chechens selected to participate in the Studies without Borders fellowship program in Paris where she studied journalism and in 2006 graduated 2nd in her class. Milana chose to move back to Grozny where she is now helping to set up a European cultural center. She has written a number of articles and is the author of a best seller “Dancing on the Ruins: A Chechen Childhood”. She is currently writing her next book, on women in Chechnya.

Raisa Borshchigova worked for a UNICEF implementing partner on the problem of HIV/AIDS in Chechnya. Raisa was selected by the Studies without Borders program in 2006 and is currently studying journalism in Europe.

Raphael Glucksmann and Aurelia Chaudagne are co-founders of the French student-lead organization Etudes Sans Frontieres – Studies Without Borders that has been helping Chechen students receive higher education at French and other European universities. Over the past four years they have put dozens of students from Chechnya through elite graduate programs while providing them with personal support in their professional development.

Please RSVP to intern-acpc@freedomhouse.org

The North Caucasus - Europe's Forgotten Human Rights Tragedy?
With Timur Aliev, Valery Dzutsev and Thomas de Waal of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Frontline Club
13 Norfolk Place
London, W2 1QJ
7:00pm

Two local editors for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Timur Aliev (Chechnya's best known journalist and also editor of Chechenskoe Obshchestvo newspaper) and Valery Dzutsev (IWPR's North Caucasus Director), who have covered events in Chechnya and at the school siege tragedy in Beslan, give a unique on-the-ground perspective on what is going on in the North Caucasus, together with IWPR's Caucasus editor and expert Tom de Waal.

The event is free and open to the public. For more details, go to www.frontlineclub.com.

After the war: Journalism in Chechnya
Screening of the Chechen documentary "The Crying Sun" and panel discussion

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event, in cooperation with 16Beaver

Human Rights in Russia: The Case of Chechnya
Presentation and Discussion
Akademie fuer Internationale Politik des Renner-Instituts

Renner-Institut, Bruno-Kreisky-Saal
Entrance Gartenhotel Altmannsdorf
Hoffingergasse 26-28, 1120 Vienna
1-4pm

Presentation:
Ekaterina Sokirianskaia (Memorial)

Commentary:
Eduard Steiner (Moscow-based correspondent of the Austrian daily "Der Standard")
Karin Keil (Refugee and Migration department, Caritas Austria)

Conclusions:
Caspar Einem (MP for the Social Democratic Party, Foreign and European Policy)

Moderator:
Hans-Georg Heinrich (Professor of poitical science, Vienna University)

Presentation in English, discussion in English and German with simultaneous translation

For details, go to www.renner-institut.at.

Please RSVP at walla@renner-institut.at

From ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus to racial profiling in the Moscow metro: Russia’s spectrum of inter-ethnic problems and efforts to address them

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

Part of "Europe's Darkest Corner: New York Photo Exhibition and Event Series on Chechnya" at the International Center for Tolerance Education (more information)

International Center for Tolerance Education (ICTE)
25 Washington Street
4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY
5:30pm -7:30pm

Reception to follow.

The wars in Chechnya and a spur of hate crimes in Russia's cities have eclipsed less well-known problems in the area of inter-ethnic relations. From the very local, such as the frozen conflict between Ingush and Ossetians not far from Chechnya, to the regional - the growing alienation between the numerous ethnic minorities in the North Caucasus - and the national level with its restrictive internal migration policies and biased media coverage, inter-ethnic coexistence in Russia appears to be fraught with dysfunction. Our panel of distinguished experts will provide insights and describe their efforts to promote peace, diversity and minority rights in the North Caucasus and all over Russia.

Click here to enlarge and print out the invitation to the event.

Moderator: Mark von Hagen (Columbia University)

Tullio Santini, based in Moscow, has been UNICEF's North Caucasus Programme Coordinator since 2003 and manages UNICEF's Humanitarian/Recovery Programme in the region. He previously served with the UN Department for Political Affairs (Cambodia) as well as for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (New York and Burundi). Before joining the UN he worked in the areas of electoral assistance and human rights monitoring, with the OSCE (Albania and Bosnia) and NGOs (South Africa and Bangladesh). In 1995-98 he held a research fellowship at the Human Rights Centre of the University of Padua (Italy). He holds degrees in Political Science, Journalism and Human Rights. He is currently working on a PhD thesis on the challenge of humanitarian protection in complex emergencies.

Ekaterina Sokirianskaia has been working at the Memorial Human Rights Center in Nazran, Ingushetia, for several years, where she has, among other responsibilities, initiated grass-roots programs to reconcile ethnic Ingush and Ossetians. She is a graduate of Department of Philosophy of St Petersburg State University as well as Central European University in Budapest, with a cum laude MA in political science of post-communist transition, and Russian State Pedagogical University, with MA in English and Japanese Philology. Katya is now working on her Ph.D. dissertation Governing Fragmented Societies: State -Building and Social Integration in Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia at Central European University's Political Science Department. She is also an Assistant Professor of history at the Chechen State University in Grozny.

Nickolai Butkevich, the Research and Advocacy Director at the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews received an MA in Central European, Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies from Georgetown University in 1998, and a BA in History from Mary Washington College in 1994. He has published widely on the subject of racism, anti-semitism, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities and hate crime in the former Soviet Union and has spoken about these issues at universities and testified in Congress as well as in US asylum cases.

Julia Harrington Julia Harrington is Senior Legal Officer for Equality and Citizenship at the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative. In 2005/2006, she spearheaded an effort to document the problem of ethnic profiling in the Moscow metro system of people belonging to Russia's minorities, using the same methodology as had been used to document racial profiling in the US. The Equality and Citizenship program continues to work in Russia, seeking legal remedies in cases of discrimination against ethnic minorities. Prior to joining the Justice Initiative, Julia received Echoing Green and Ashoka fellowships in recognition of her work promoting human rights litigation in Africa.

Please RSVP by Friday, February 23 to BSUBBA@tmf-tolerance.org

Directions: F train to York Street, A/C to High Street, 2/3 to Clark Street (1st stop in Brooklyn). Click here for a map.

Chechnya: Past and Present
An event to commemorate the 1944 deportation and assess the present

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

Berkeley City College
2050 Center Street, Berkeley, CA, 94704
Our reception with Chechen food starts at 7 pm in the atrium
The presentation starts at 8 pm in room 51

Featured speaker Professor Michaela Pohl (Department of History, Vassar College)

February 23, 1944
The wholesale deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people to Central Asia begins. Their fate - deportation, forced exile and suffering - is shared by a dozen other ethnic groups from all over Stalin's Soviet Union. Their very name is wiped off the map of their indigenous homeland. In 1957, after Stalin's death, Chechens and Ingush as well as most other deported peoples are allowed to return home.
December 13, 1994
Russian troops invade the self-proclaimed independent Chechen Republic, setting off a decade of war, lawlessness and human rights abuses.
February 23, 2007
After 12 years of war, violence and upheaval: What is the state of Chechnya today?

Our 3-rd Annual Event is dedicated to looking at the lives of Chechens in today’s reality, while analyzing and commemorating their past. Although the story of Stalin's deportations of entire nations, arguably one of the most massive crimes of the 20th century, is not widely known, it is a central part of the Chechen people's collective memory. We will take look at the present situation in light of the experiences of the last 3 generations.

Speaker bio:
Professor Pohl is the foremost Western expert on the deportation of the Chechen Nation and their lives in the exile and has conducted extensive oral history research. She received her Ph.D.in modern Russian history from Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana (1999). Her research focuses on the social history of the Soviet Union after Stalin, especially the Khrushchev period. Other research and teaching interests include the history of Kazakstan and Chechnya, diasporas in the borderlands of the former Soviet Union, youth and children in Russia and Europe, and Russian and Central European popular culture. Her on-going projects include research on the cultural resistance in exile of the Chechen people (they were deported from the Caucasus to North Kazakstan in 1944). Among her publications is "'It Cannot be that Our Graves Will be Here:' The Survival of Chechen and Ingush Deportees in Kazakhstan, 1944-1957."

This event is sponsored by the Global Studies Club and the American Friends Service Committee of San Francisco.

Please RSVP by February 21 to can@chechnyaadvocacy.org.

"Responding to Conflict and Building Peace in Chechnya and the North Caucasus" - Informational Panel and Subsequent Workshop with Chris Hunter of the Centre for Peacebuilding and Community Development (CPCD)

A Chechnya Advocacy Network Event

Part of "Europe's Darkest Corner: New York Photo Exhibition and Event Series on Chechnya" at the International Center for Tolerance Education (more information)

International Center for Tolerance Education (ICTE)
25 Washington Street
4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY
10:30am-12:30pm Informational Panel
2-5pm: Interactive Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution Workshop

Speakers at the morning panel:
Professor Michaela Pohl, Vassar University
Chris Hunter, founder and chief executive of CPCD
Almut Rochowanski, Chechnya Advocacy Network (moderator)

Afternoon workshop lead by Chris Hunter

10:30am -12:30pm: Chris Hunter, chief executive of the UK -based charity "Centre for Peacebuilding and Community Development" will talk about his and his organization’s work in Chechnya and the region during two wars over the last 12 years. He will also introduce a joint project with a US organization that has created a book Power of Goodness: Stories of Nonviolence and Reconciliation and its planned use with children in Grozny to promote awareness of peaceful and non-violent ways of dealing with conflict, building tolerance and respect for human rights. Professor Michaela Pohl of Vassar College will present background information about the history of the conflict and the current situation. 12:30 -2pm: Lunch at ICTE

Click here to enlarge and print out the invitation to the event.

2-5pm: An afternoon workshop session aimed primarily at

Background information:
Chris Hunter is one of the most remarkable and influential civil society leaders and international advocates working on Chechnya and the North Caucasus. His involvement in Chechnya started in 1994 at the start of the first Chechen war, when he organized various peace-related activities in Russia. Together with Chechen friends, he founded the Centre for Peacemaking and Community Development (CPCD - www.cpcd.info) in 1995, which has been the leading organization (and for a long time the only one) to work in the areas of peace, tolerance and non-violence. Chris Hunter has been awarded an MBE by the British government, for services to the people of Chechnya, an Honour of the Chechen People medal, the German Shalom Peace Prize, and the United Nations of Youth International Peace Prize. He is a member of the executive board of Peaceworkers UK and the Quaker Peace and Social Witness Overseas Project group.

In addition to CPCD's peacebuilding activities, which are targeted at children and young people not just in Chechnya, but across the region, CPCD has provided humanitarian aid, community development activities, has pioneered psychosocial programs for traumatized children and supports cultural institutions. CPCD is today both a registered Russian organization and a UK-based charity and combines the best of both worlds by being deeply rooted in North Caucasus communities while bringing international expertise and funding to its work. Unlike other international aid agencies and even most Russian organizations, CPCD remained in the region during the chaotic and dangerous interwar years between 1997 and 1999, continuing to provide aid to the population. One of the remarkable features of CPCD is its staff recruitment and its investment in young leaders from the region; the most dedicated, professional and thoughtful young professionals from the region have all either been trained by CPCD, worked for the organization or are still affiliated with it on a volunteer basis. CPCD invests in training its volunteers and staff members at home and abroad and many of them go on to influential positions in local media, international aid organizations and civil society.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, January 24 to BSUBBA@tmf-tolerance.org

Directions: F train to York Street, A/C to High Street, 2/3 to Clark Street (1st stop in Brooklyn). Click here for a map.

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