The pessimistic attitude clouding the American capital has been aggravated by the fiasco the “Obamacare” health insurance reform has set in place. To date, barely 10,000 Americans could sign up on the site created specifically to compare insurances and register.
Yet, at the heart of this depressed and discouraging climate are “everyday” citizens showing that one person can change the course of history. On Saturday, Nov. 16, a reception took place at 7 pm, organized by Freedom House president David J. Kramer. French-Russian journalist Elena Servettaz presented her book, “Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law: Should the EU Follow the U.S.?”
Servettaz, also a contributor to American and Russian media, collected contributions from 54 people involved in the Magnitsky affair. A brief recall:
About four years ago, Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer, died in a Moscow prison, beaten to death by the guards. His crime? Denouncing the biggest fiscal fraud ever committed in Russia. Even more, this fraud had been the work of state officials associated with a mafia gang (even if the distinction between the two is difficult to discern). Magnitsky, according to human rights lawyer William Browden, had noted the disappearance of $230 million owed to the state of Russia. While he wanted to get justice, he was arrested by those responsible for said embezzlement.
A year ago the U.S. Congress adopted the Magnitsky Act, a law forbidding those responsible for Magnitsky’s death from setting foot on American soil. The list of those banned is not limited; new names will soon be added to this shaming list.
Elena Servettaz, who followed the Sergei Magnitsky affair, is an expert on citizen and activist opposition movements in Russia; she had the idea to create a project to make European Union members consider the necessity of adopting a Magnitsky law. She subsequently asked a variety of people — from Alexei Navalni, Putin’s opponent, and American Senator John McCain to the father of one of Pussy Riot’s members — to give their opinions on the law.
Servettaz has found her niche in the old “muckraker” tradition that dates to the beginning of the 20th century; the scandalous investigations journalists undertook made large contributions to social reform. Among the most famous of these journalists are Lincoln Steffens and H.L. Mencken; contemporaries include I.F. Stone and Seymour Hersch.
“Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law,” the result of this remarkable work, is about to be published. Servettaz discussed the book in five countries, notably at the British parliament, the Paris senate, the European Parliament, the Hague parliament, Washington and Columbia University’s Harriman Institute in New York.
Servettaz and Bill Browder’s books mark the beginning of a new era in human rights. One has elaborated on the theory of “right to intervene” with Doctors without Borders and the Biafra War in 1968. This new stage is more adapted to globalization and the development of state mafia: respecting human rights by threatening those who show themselves capable of abuses, whoever and wherever they are, that their dirty money will be seized but also that they can no longer travel in democratic countries, especially the United States and Europe, where they like to spend their money. As there is now a struggle against fiscal paradises, there is hope that there will now be (with the same enthusiasm) a struggle against people flouting citizens’ rights.
Servattaz’s book could well signal the release of an avalanche. Currently, it’s a simple snowball which soon will hurtle down the road of ruination; it’s a force which takes with it everything in its path.
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