The SOVA Center presented two annual reports

On March 24, 2009, in Moscow, at the Independent Press Center, a presentation of two annual reports of the SOVA Center took place: “Problems in the implementation of freedom of conscience” and “Illegal application of anti-extremist legislation.”

The director of the SOVA center Alexander Verkhovsky, deputy director Galina Kozhevnikova and employee of the Smolny Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (St. Petersburg) Dmitry Dubrovsky spoke at the press conference.

The report on freedom of conscience, which was presented by A. Verkhovsky, examined the most pressing problems that arose or received new development in this area in 2008. In particular, he touched upon issues of discrimination against religious minorities, manifestations of religious xenophobia, regulation of relations between religion and education, restrictions freedom of conscience using anti-extremist legislation, etc.

The report on unlawful extremism, presented by G. Kozhevnikova, focused on three main trends in 2008:

it is freedom of conscience that is subject to increasingly noticeable restrictions using anti-extremist tools;
the most common type of wrongfully targeted speech is criticism, directly or indirectly, of law enforcement
The scale of anti-extremist law enforcement is growing faster than law enforcement agencies can handle, which in itself gives rise to many problems.

D. Dubrovsky reported on the problems associated with conducting examinations in “extremist” cases.

Then the speakers answered questions from journalists.

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