Russian human rights activists sum up results of 2006

On December, 29 representatives of the Russian Research Center for Human Rights held a press-conference to sum up the results of the year 2006. Members of the  Russian Research Center for Human Rights reported on and evaluated their activities in 2006 especially the project “Getting the younger generation involved in protection of human rights, due to development of the volunteer movement” funded by the European Union.  Besides, they presented books published by the Center. (02-JAN-07)

Text and Photos: HRH/Moscow, by Yanina Savenko.

                                                      The Press-conference of the Russian Research Center for Human Rights (RRCHR), first of all, was aimed at reporting results of the big project “Getting the younger generation involved in protection of human rights, due to development of the volunteer movement” carried out by the Center with the help of the European Union. The project was realized in 2006 in Moscow, Smolenskiy and Voronezhskiy regions, in Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories. In the framework of the project more than 5000 young people learned much interesting and vivid information about human rights and how to defend their rights in relations with officials and militia. Having learned about activities of human rights organizations some students came to work as volunteers in the human rights organizations. 

Center’s activities in 2006
Besides, members of the RRSHR reported about results of their work in 2006 at the press-conference. So, in the last year more than four thousand people received consultations in the Union of Soldiers Mothers Committees of the Russian Federation. Lawyers of the “Mothers Right” Foundation won cases and got more than 2 million rubles of indemnity for families of perished soldiers. More than 500 persons with mental disorders were saved from unlawful encroachment on their apartments and other property, from unfounded claims of their employers and dishonest relatives. More than 1.5 thousand of juvenile delinquents in penitentiary institutions in Bryansk, Perm, Mozhaysk got presents in the frame work of the charitable program “Christmas behind bars”, conducted by the Center “For Prison Reform”. According to Chairwoman of the Union of Soldiers Mothers Committees Valentina Melnikova, human rights activists shouldn’t be afraid of unemployment. “In spite of the fact that contacts with representatives of military departments became a little bit easier, number of cases of human rights violations in the Russian Army haven’t decreased”.

New publications
Members of the RRCHR presented a list of new literature published by the Center in 2006, such as collected articles “Control over human rights observance in Russia’s closed institutions”, “International mechanisms for human rights protection”; booklets “Teenager, protect your rights!”, “Rights of citizens with mental disorders. Questions and answers” and also a guide-book for the exhibition “Human Rights in Russia” held in the Museum of Contemporary History of the Russian Federation in Moscow and in show-rooms in Smolensk, Krasnodar, Kislovodsk, Pyatigorsk and Voronezh.

Results of the year
All human rights activists came to an agreement that a few positive aspects have appeared in 2006, in particular the fact that human rights activists began to cooperate more closely with authorities and governmental bodies. However, they were forced to acknowledge that on the whole the year of 2006 was full of hard and meaningful events which testify to further attacks on human rights and freedoms, general deterioration of the situation with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and to use of new laws against democratic opposition and human rights organizations.