Civil Freedoms, Religious & Ethnic Toleration

Throughout Eurasia there has been an effort to promote a civil society and greater freedoms for its citizenry after the collapse of totalitarianism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Other citizens within Eurasia, in Burma, Iran and North Korea for example, still have not realized their basic freedoms. The Eurasia Center new Program to Promote Civil Society and Freedoms in Eurasia focuses on the important questions of our day - what is necessary to build a democratic state and a multiparty parliamentarian system which works and provides crucial responsibility of building a civil society in each respective nation. For example, the goal of creating a middle class - the mainstay of durable democracy, would be crucial in Russia. Another crucial goal would be removing the power of the mafia in the regions throughout the former Soviet Union, as well as building an honest, effective law enforcement system. Instilling a positive civic ethic within the population, in school systems, is also an important requirement for reform in most of these countries.

A positive relationship between the federal government, state governments, and citizenry is also fundamental goal of building a civil society. Civil society values the basic freedoms of man: freedom of association, freedom of expression, participatory democracy, and respect for a diversity of ethnicities and religions. A vigorous civil society is important for insuring that freedoms of the citizenry are preserved in times of trouble and change. The Eurasia Center's Program to Promote Civil Society and Freedoms will be crucial in evaluating real progress towards democracy and civil society in the new Eurasia. This program is building the Freedom Computer Network which will be a key network for activists and universities to exchange information on measuring progress in the goals of democratic progress and freedoms which each country's citizenry has hope to secure.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Soviet Union, old ethnic rivalries and neo-nationalist efforts created conflicts in Yugoslavia and throughout the republics of the former Soviet Union. Such conflicts stimulated racial hatred and ethnic cleansing which in some cases led to genocide. Despite NATO/UN supervision, there remains a chance for future war if a spirit of cooperation and multiculturalism is not promoted. Negative forces have reemerged within Europe in the form of the "neo-nazi" movement/skinhead movement and reactionary political forces that have spread eastward, assaulting refugees from other countries, resident Jewish populations, and foreigners living abroad.

This program promotes religious and ethnic toleration and seeks to educate and provide new alternatives toward stopping negative trends developing in these areas. Protecting the rights of ethnic minorities constitutionally and providing religious freedom for citizens is one of the hallmarks of the American historical experience. By highlighting problems in Eurasia and providing new effective alternatives which promote religious and ethnic toleration, the Eurasia Center is a positive force in changing attitudes within these nations.