Saturday, February 19, 2011

Russia not doing enough to stop racially motivated crimes

In February 1969, the Russian Federation ratified the landmark International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. Forty two years later, the commitment of Russian authorities to eliminate racial discrimination and racially motivated crimes against national or ethnic minorities in Russia remains questionable. In Russia, non-slavic people, blacks and Asians remain easy targets for Russian so-called white supremacist groups which make no secret of their intentions.

This morning - thanks to Afro-Europe International Blog - I came across a disturbing video report that shines light on the surge in racially motivated crimes in Russia.

WARNING: You might find the following video offensive.

Watch...



It is evident from the above video that the perpetrators of such crimes against ethnic minorities are known and within reach. They are not afraid to be identified and filmed - inciting racial violence in the 21st Century. This highlights the level of impunity for racially motivated crimes in Russia.

The victims - in this case Africans - are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Back home in Africa, repressive regimes deny them basic rights. In Europe, they face sub-human conditions in a land far from home. Either way, they're victims of man's inhumanity to man and are in desperate need of protection.

Like all Russians, racial or ethnic minorities have the right to security of person and to be protected by the state against such mental and physical harm inflicted by racist groups. The government of Russia has an obligation to protect racial or ethnic minorities living within its borders. The authorities should therefore take concrete steps without delay to stop racially motivated crimes and restore the dignity of victims.

In March 2010, a Russian court imprisoned 9 members of white supremacist group for the brutal killing of a Cameroonian. But a lot more can and should be done to stop such crimes.

Russia will be hosting the FIFA 2018 World Cup. This compounds the urgency to curb hate crimes and ensure that racist criminals do not walk the streets.

You can watch Part II of the above video, here.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." - Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human rights.

4 comments:

  1. My fiancee is Russian and I have been wanting to visit Russia to get to know his history more, but this post def. makes me think twice about going. It's probably not like that everywhere in Russian but even so, as I am of Asian descent it makes me a bit weary. I found this post really interesting though, thank you.

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  2. u dont know a thing about racism in russia, man

    the video is total shit

    im kinda hate caucasians, not because im a racist - im not, theres no race matter

    the caucasians is evil angry pepople

    they got no respect to russian culture

    they coming into my country for work like mexicans coming into yours

    and they behave themselves like masters, when they are nearly slaves

    btw they hating whole russian pepole and culture and still they coming into my country i cant understand this

    ReplyDelete
  3. Coming back to read the post and vid. again.

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  4. In Russia people of different races live. And the case of racial discrimination is seldom...In America such cases are more often

    ReplyDelete

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