April 15, 2013

U R G E N T

Honorable Senator Benjamin Cardin
Honorable Congressman Christopher Smith
Co-chairs of the Helsinki Commission of the American Congress (Committee on Foreign Affairs)

Dear co-chairs of the Helsinki Commission:

Alarming information about the escalation of wide attacks on the Russian NGOs comes every day from Moscow. Almost all powerful inspection departments on the federal and local levels (like Security Service, Prosecutors’ offices, divisions of the Interior Ministry, even Fire Departments, Taxes, Customs, Border Troops, etc.) have been thrown on central Russian and International NGOs (like “Memorial,” Moscow Helsinki Group, Human Rights Movement, “Golos,” Committee Against Tortures, – about 700 according to President Putin) in spite of recent planned examinations. We know of 222 groups across Russia that have been raided. They include religious organizations as well as pro-democracy and human right groups. The religious groups include Catholics, Evangelical Christians, Jews and Muslims. It is a concerted effort by the Putin government to destroy all such groups by applying the iron hand of the state. Raiders even came to the private apartments of the chairs of important NGOs, like Committee Against Tortures. The explanation was delivered by President Putin, – how the new law about “foreign agents” was to be implemented. In an interview to the German mass-media on April 4, 2013, he said that Russian NGOs received about 1 billion dollars during the last 4 months for “their political activity inside the country.” At the same time these NGOs “violated” the new law – they did not recognize themselves as “foreign agents.”

Everybody knows this government is deathly afraid of free expression and the possibility of true democracy and accountability for violations of human rights. Anti-American rhetoric has become part of the official foreign policy. The economic situation is very poor in Russia but its finances are investing in military equipment. Russian diplomats reject almost all Western initiatives for settling peace and stability. Persecution of the honest NGOs will inhibit the development of public society in Russia and deprive the world of truthful information. The purpose of the raids is to spread fear again all over the society. We are witnesses to the micro-Stalinization of all spheres of freedom, culture, and science. We also see the first attempts to undermine the Helsinki Final Act. The key is to help Russian NGOs to survive and to continue to operate. We need to stop their suffocation by the Putin regime.

The UCSJ has been working in the former Soviet Union since 1970 and up until 1991 was the voice of the Refuseniks. UCSJ consistently advocated for freedom of emigration throughout this time. For the last 20 years, we have been the voice of democratic forces and have fought against anti-Semitism and other forms of xenophobia, working as the bridge between Russian and Western public societies.

We hope that your distinguished Commission can inspire the American public and authorities to help Russian (as well as other parts of the FSU) NGOs to continue their important work. In addition, we hope you will influence the American administration to support NGO protection. As the first organizational measures we propose:

• to establish a Crisis Support Group (CSG) in Washington D.C. to coordinate efforts to support the integrity of Russian NGOs and their leadership. We are ready to open our offices in Washington DC to aid in this effort;
• to run special hearings about the Russian fulfillment of the Helsinki Human Rights Documents
• (American Congress, autumn, 2013) with the participation of several Russian NGOs leaders;
• to ask the State Department to include in the Magnitsky List the names of officials who persecute
• NGOs in the present crisis;
• to inform the European Union members about American measures and invite them to join it.

Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,

Larry Lerner

President

Since 2004, it has served as a lifeline for religious minorities fleeing the Islamic theocracy of Iran.

The amendment, named for the U.S. senator from New Jersey who introduced the measure, has kept open a critical path to American safe haven for certain foreigners persecuted because of their religion.

That path was in danger of closing early this month. The amendment was subject to a sunset clause — meaning that funding had to be renewed every five years — and the sequester’s across-the-board programming cuts did not augur well.

But on March 6, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives handed the program a lifeline when they included it in a “continuing resolution,” a stopgap measure that funds critical government programs while Congress and the White House continue to negotiate a budget. The resolution passed by a vote of 267 to 151. It now goes to the Democratic-led Senate, where leaders have said they will work to pass a version that both parties and the White House can stomach.

“We’re grateful to House leadership and appropriators for including this provision to protect Iranian religious minorities,” said Melanie Nezer, the policy director for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the lead Jewish group advocating for the amendment’s renewal. “This is probably the only way this provision could be extended this year, and it looks like there’s a good chance Congress will reopen the door soon to those needing to flee Iran.”

The amendment hit a roadblock in 2011 when the Republicans recaptured the House and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) ascended to the chairmanship of the body’s Judiciary Committee. Smith, a hardliner on immigration, at first would not allow the amendment to advance to appropriations, saying his committee needed to take a closer look.

“Whether some potential refugees should be singled out for special treatment is open to question,” Smith wrote in a May 2011 rebuttal to National Review, a conservative magazine that had joined an array of liberal and conservative opinion makers in advocating for the amendment.

In 2012, incremental extensions of the amendment managed to get through despite Smith’s opposition, and the amendment was extended through Sept. 30. With the new Congress, Smith lost his chairmanship because of term limits, but for months it wasn’t clear whether the amendment would pass.

In recent years, the primary beneficiaries of the provision have been Iranians. Under the amendment, religious minorities in Iran may apply for visas to travel to Austria, where U.S. officials consider their eligibility. The program processes some 2,000 applicants a year, mostly from Iran, although some former Soviet Union applicants also are accommodated. Iranians eligible under the amendment include Jews, Christians and Baha’is.

Overall, the Lautenberg Amendment is believed to have opened the door to some 400,000 people, many of them Jews and Christians from the former Soviet Union, but also religious minorities in Vietnam and Burma.

Last Friday, Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS, raised the amendment’s precarious status in a meeting on immigration reform between President Obama and leaders of immigration groups.

“It makes no sense that every year we have to fight to get protection for Iranian refugees fleeing persecution,” Hetfield said he told the president. “This, too, should be fixed.”

The Chicago Jewish Federation, involved for years in absorbing Jewish and other refugees into the city, has been a lead group in lobbying for Lautenberg’s renewal.

“A lot of people have been helped by this, and not just Jews,” said David Prystowksy, director of government affairs for the Chicago federation. “Especially in the situation with Iran where we don’t have an embassy, this specific lifeline is critical.”

The amendment was designed to open up an avenue for emigration for Soviet Jews who did not qualify for refugee status, which in the United States requires proof of a risk to life or freedom for an applicant. Instead, the Lautenberg amendment requires proof that a member of a designated minority faith is subject to discrimination, for instance in hiring practices or at educational institutions.

With its inclusion in the continuing resolution approved by the House, the amendment is all but guaranteed survival. It has the backing of two influential Senate champions, Lautenberg himself and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).

Even with passage, however, the latest continuing resolution lapses on Sept. 30. Advocates of the amendment want it to become permanent law.

“If the program isn’t authorized within a year, it could shut down,” warned Stephan Kline, a lobbyist for the Jewish Federations of North America. “It’s more difficult to get a program up and running than to keep it running.”

Permanence would make sense, said Joel Rubin, a former top aide to Lautenberg who now is director of policy for the Ploughshares Fund, a group that advocates nuclear disarmament.

“It served to shine a light on religious intolerance in the Soviet Union,” he said. “It goes to the core principles of our country, which is religious freedom and a safe harbor.”

Dec 14 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law a bill that modernizes U.S. trade relations with Russia by ending a Cold War-era provision, but also punishes Russian human rights violators.

Russia has objected strongly to the human rights component of the legislation named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-corruption lawyer who died in 2009 in a Russian jail.

On Friday, the lower house of Russia’s parliament gave preliminary approval to a tit-for-tat measure against U.S. human rights violators.

President Obama has signed the Magnitsky bill, which passed in Congress by significant numbers.  It is a great victory for human rights and for the UCSJ.  Last August, the UCSJ gathered ten human rights groups and many individuals all of whom signed on to a letter to over 150 US Senators and Congressmen of both parties.  As a result of that push, we were able to go over the tipping point in support of the Magnitsky bill to replace  Jackson-Vanik.  It is a fantastic achievement which now can hold accountable those who violate  basic human rights  and shows that the UCSJ is still a leader in the fight for the rule of law in the world.

Larry Lerner
President, UCSJ

Dear Member of Congress,

We are religious and human rights organizations which work together on issues of international importance and today we are writing you to support the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act” currently before both houses of Congress.

Issues of human rights and religious freedom are inseparable. As representatives of a wide number of religions and faiths across the United States, we do everything possible to make sure that all people can practice their faith around the world without restriction or interference. For this reason, we strongly support the passage of the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act” (H.R 4405 / S.1039). This Act was named after Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer in Russia who bravely stood up to corruption, and ultimately paid the highest possible price by losing his life at the hands of the official of the Russian state involved in the corruption he uncovered. The details of his story are extremely sad, but his sacrifice will hopefully lead to an important and new method for fighting human rights abuses which could have a dramatic effect everywhere.

Among other things, we support this legislation because it specifically targets officials who abuse human rights with effective travel and financial sanctions. America’s rule of law, property rights and entrenched freedoms make our country a magnet for millions of people all over the world. They visit our great nation to enjoy our stability, use our banking system and feel safe. We support sharing our way of life with people from all over the world who want to visit our country. At the same time, coming to America is a privilege and not a right, and when foreign officials are involved in torture, murder, restrictions of religious freedom or other human rights abuses, they should have that privilege taken away. We believe that this law would not only create an effective punishment for people who have violated human rights, but also a powerful deterrent for people not to do these things in the future.

It is one thing to talk about human rights and religious freedoms and quite another to actually do something about it. Because of the well thought out terms of this legislation, we believe that this bill will become an effective lever that the United States will have in dealing with this pernicious and growing problem of human rights abuses around the world. We strongly urge you to co-sponsor this bill in the short term and vote for its passage into law.

Sincerely Yours,

ORGANIZATIONS

ACTION FOR POST-SOVIET JEWRY

AMERICAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY

HINDU AMERICAN FOUNDATION

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW FOUNDATION

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

PARTNERS FOR A PROGRESSIVE ISRAEL

UNITED MACEDONIAM DIASPORA

UNION OF COUNCILS FOR JEWS IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION (UCSJ)

 Individuals

C. Naseer Ahmad

President

AZI Consulting Inc.

Professor Jerome A. Chanes

New York, NY

 
Rabbi Israel S. Dresner,

Temple Beth Tikvah

Wayne, NJ
 

Mark Gold,

Former President Americans for a Progressive Israel

Teaneck, NJ

Professor Leonard Grob

Professor Emeritus, Fairleigh-Dickinson University

Rutherford, NJ

Rabbi Roger Lerner,

Temple B’nai Brith,

Kingston, PA

Greg Mitchell

President

The Mitchell Firm

Senge Hasnan Sering

President

Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies

Michael Stoddard Ph.D.

Lecturer, San Diego State University

The Sergei Magnitsky bill would prevent Russian authorities responsible for human rights abuses from traveling to the US and storing their ill-gotten cash overseas.

Please call your Senator and ask him or her to support this bill. Thank you.

Read about this effort in the New York Times

Bill summary.