– With the ascension of Dmitry Medvedev to the Russian presidency, a new kind of political rhetoric entered the Kremlin. Medvedev says he wants to combat legal nihilism, and has pledged reform and modernization. Do the modernization plans offer possibilities for Russian human rights groups, asked Secretary General Bjørn Engesland, left, of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in his introduction.

No democracy without competition
The discussion circled around Medvedev’s rethoric and whether they express any real changes in Russian policy.

-Medvedev has no intention of changing the political system. Politics will still be conducted by the state. Without political competition, it is not possible to build democracy in the Russian Federation, said Igor Klaymkin, right, Head of the analytical center fund Public Opinion in the Russian Federation.

Klaymkin has together with several other human rights activists and researchers from the Russian Federation been attending the conference "Strengthening Human Rights in the Russian Federation", which the Norwegian Helsinki Committee has arranged this week together with Amnesty International Norway.

Ludmila Alexeeva (picture below), who is a founding member of the Helsinki Watch Group in Moscow, gave an introduction focusing on the Movement 31. Movement 31 has its name from article 31 of the Russian Constitution which protects the freedom of assembly.

Movement 31
Demonstrations has been arranged in Moscow on the 31 of each and every month that has 31 days since 31 July 2009, and it has been held similar demonstrations to support the demands of Movement 31 in London, Berlin, New York, Paris and Tel Aviv.

-Protecting article 31 is one of the most important actions we can take, because it protects one of our most fundamental rights: the freedom of assembly, said Ludmilla Alexeeva, right.

In the panel discussions following the introductions, the question was raised whether there is room for civil society in the Russian Federation.

Gregory Shvedov, the Director of the MEMO.RU Information Agency and editor in chief of the Caucasian Knot, focused on the people of the Russian Federation and what kind of civil society they want.

-Internet has given the people an opportunity to express themselves and getting information in a way they did not have before. Bloggers and forums on the internet show that the people of the Russian Federation want to have a dynamic civil society. These facts give us a faith when it comes to building a strong civil society in the Russian Federation, said Shvedov, left.

Next year will bring result
Pavel Chikov, an experienced lawyer and President of the NGO AGORA underlined that the next year and a half will be an important period to fill with actions leading in a positive direction. Medvedev has started several important reforms in the justice sector, and will argue he needs a second term to complete them.

– We have a real possibility to influence this process. Lawyers play the role of human rights defenders and can influence via the courts. In this process we need to learn from the Norwegian experience, he said.

-We used to believe that refugees from North Caucasus who managed to get to Norway were safe, said the 2010 nominee to the Nobel peace prize, Svetlana Gannushkina of the Human Rights Center "Memorial". Unfortunately this is no longer the case, she said, referring to the fact that more than 90% of the applications for asylum are turned down.

– In addition, Norwegian immigration authorities misuse the work of our organisation by claiming that returned refugees can turn to our offices for help. We can only provide advice and inform them about their rights, we can not provide security, food, work, health or housing for them.

Gannushkina drew a bleak picture of the security development in the region, highlighting the court trial against the her colleague Oleg Orlov as an illustrating example.

Norwegian NGOs taking action
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Amnesty International and the Human Rights House Foundation staged a silent protest on 27 April 2010 outside the hotel where President Dimitri Medvedev has been staying during his visit to Norway.

Medvedev’s visit coincided with Oslo Freedom Forum, an international conference for human rights defenders. Hence, among the protesters were high profile Russian human rights activists like the former Chess master Garri Kasparov and the Rafto laureate Lidia Yusupova, left, with pictures of Natalia Estemirova and Anna Politkovskaya, both murdered for their human rights engagements. 

The aim of the demonstration was to draw public attention of the many grave human rights concerns in the Russian Federation.

On 23 March 2010 Norwegian Helsinki Committee in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs organised a seminar in which Russia’s harsh policies pursued during continuous anti-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus region were analyzed and discussed by human rights defenders and experts.

HRH Oslo, based on Norwegian Helsinki Committee information.

Related links:

Russian human rights groups in Moscow in the searchlight of the Prosecutor’s Office

Russia: human rights defender sentenced for the second time

-Human rights are also on the agenda, Mr President

Russia’s North Caucasus – human rights and conflict dynamics