The reformation of the council comes after Medvedev held an unexpected meeting last month with ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the editor of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper over the murders of Baburova and Markelov.
Human rights activists welcomed the decision of the President to reconstitute the council but asked why the body had been allowed to lay dormant since Medvedev took over the presidency from Vladimir Putin in May.
The President’s Council for the Promotion of the Institutes of Civil Society and Human Rights was created by Putin in 2004 to improve the often-strained ties between the government and civil society.
“There is nowhere where receiving the advice of such a council does not – for the development of the government and the formation of civil society – help to unite people with different positions. For us these processes (of creating a civil society) have proceeded in a very difficult manner,” Medvedev said.
Several of the members of the 36-member council complained to the press that Medvedev had allowed it to languish by refusing to confirm its members.
“Why was he vacillating on this all year?” asked council member Svetlana Ganushkina in the Kommersant newspaper. “All year there was no council, or more precisely, the council was in a state of dormancy.”
But the council leader Ella Pamfilova reported that it was important for civil society to work with the authorities during the current financial crisis and “divide the responsibilities between us and solve problems together.”
Russian Human Rights House also seeks to strengthen the relations with public authorities. Three member-organizations of Russian Research Center for Human Rights (The Union of Soldiers` Mothers Committee, Center for Prison Reform and Moscow Helsinki Group) are represented in the revised body. Another 5 organizations became members of the Expert Advisory Council at the Ombudsman of Russian Federation.
P.S. On February 18 the first session of the revised Council was held. The attention of the members was focused on identifying the main objectives of the Council’s activities in the current situation of economic and demographic crisis, problems of public control, ways of preventions of human rights violations, etc.
The Chairman of the Association of the Independent Centers of Economic Analysis Alexander Auzan stated in his speech that there is a choice ahead of public authorities, weather they will proceed to base themselves in enforcement facilities or make efforts to cooperate with the civil society.
