UCSJ, or the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, is a collection of Jewish human rights organisations working in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. They are based in Washington DC, but are linked to other organisations such as the Moscow Helsinki Group and have offices in the countries in which they conduct their activities. ...

Their activities include reporting on the human rights situations of countries in the FSU, as well as assisting communities in need and exposing human rights violations. They attempt to provide assistance to anyone who they judge to be in need of it, including Muslims and Roma as well as Jews. Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... Roma is: The Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Romanian, Norwegian and Spanish name for the Italian city of Rome. ...

Controversies

The UCSJ was one of the organisations included in the letter signed by members of the Russian Duma, which called for criminal investigations of Jewish organisations and the Jewish religion itself. It was accused of fomenting racial hatred by Jews against other religions, a charge it denies. A Duma (Ду́ма in Russian) is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. ...

A branch of the UCSJ was closed by the government of Belarus as part of what many observers saw as a wider crackdown on political dissent in the region. (main article - Human rights in Belarus) Belaruss declaration of independence on August 25, 1991, did not stem from long-held political aspirations but from reactions to domestic and foreign events. ... Dissent is the sentiment of non-agreement with the majority, or the leader, of a group to which the dissenter is supposed to belong or to obey. ... In recent years, the government of Belarus has been accused of serious human rights violations, the most recent of these being the harassment of an organisation which represents ethnic Poles in the region. ...

Official site

UCSJ