21 May 2008 the State Duma passed in its final, third reading, the law “On Public Control for Ensuring Human Rights in Detention Facilities and Assisting Persons in Detention Facilities”. Should the law e approved by the Federation Council and signed by the president it is assumed that it will to come into force on 1 September 2008. (23-MAY-08)
Written by Maria Paramonova/HRH Moscow
Links: http://www.izbrannoe.ru/36727.html; http://www.izbrannoe.ru/36729.html
Photo: www.hro.org
The Provisions of the Law
According to this law, public control over observance of the rights of detained persons, arrested persons and prisoners will be carried out by the regional monitoring commissions, and assistance to persons in detention will be carried out by public associations. The basic forms of assistance as written in the document are the participation in making decisions on questions of labor, domestic devices, health services and social security.
For control in each region the commission will appoint a nominee to a two-year term where the all-Russian, inter-regional or regional public associations that have passed the last state registration and working no less of than 5 years can be invited.
The number of commissions, from 5 to 20 persons, should define the Council of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. The Public Chamber will also approve the personal structure of the commissions.
On the results of the control activities public commissions should send the materials to the Ombudsman for human rights, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, the public associations, mass media, enforcement authorities…etc.
History of the Draft Law 
At the end of 90’s the idea of Public Control over the observance of human rights in detention facilities was advanced in parliament by the human rights defender Valery Borschev (photo). Being a deputy of the State Duma, he prepared the corresponding bill which the State Duma with overwhelming majority of votes accepted in 1999. However, the Federation Council did not approve that document.
This variant of the law was accepted in the first reading in September 2003, but then a five-fold reference of human rights defenders and the Ombudsman for human rights of the Russian Federation to president Vladimir Putin was required to achieve consideration of the proposed law in the second reading. It took place only on 23 April of this year.
Valery Borschev considers that with the enactment of “On Public Control for Ensuring Human Rights in Detention Facilities” it was possible to punch a gap in deaf defense of the departments resisting such control. Human rights defenders managed to do something during the time when the law was absent.
But everything depended on the good will of the department heads and representatives of the authorities. For example, human rights defenders were allowed to actually enter police offices in only one region – Moscow. It was easier to do in the colonies; they managed to be visited more or less freely. However, there was a sharp deterioration over the last three years in this situation. So the law is simply necessary.
Deficiencies in the law after amendments
In this case the approved amendments considerably curtailed the rights of public controllers and have made them dependent on the checked departments.
A regulation was adopted on the fact that those who do the checking should operate according to the rules established by “The Corresponding Federal Enforcement Authority in charge of Detention Facilities”. And also that “the public observant commission shall notify the corresponding territorial unit from the Penal System, the Body of Internal Affairs, the Border Authority of the Federal Security Service, the controlling element of the Agency of Education of the Russian Federation about planned visiting the detention facilities, specifying the facilities they planned to attend and dates of the visit”.
In the opinion of the Institute of Human Rights expert Lev Levinson, one task of the law’s initiators was the creation of an “anti-torture tool”. Torture, according to Levinson, does not occur in jail, but in places of detention – at the militia. Early warning of the militia’s heads about a check being prepared will make it possible to hide the people who were subject to violence from the eyes of the auditors.
Valery Borschev thought that, certainly, it is necessary to talk to the Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev on the topic who should be warned and who shouldn’t, before a survey. I do not rule out that he will listen to our arguments and that in the affirmed instructions there won’t be the point that militiamen need to be informed in advance on visiting human rights defenders.
It’s also unclear what order of visiting the detention facilities the departments will approve. The instructions prepared by them can considerably reduce the rights of controllers, given by the law.
However, Valentine Gefter (photo) , director of Institute of Human Rights, emphasizing the inadmissibility of the situation when interdepartmental reports are put above the law, nevertheless considered acceptance of the law as a positive moment. “It is the first law at the federal level in our country where public control over observance of human rights is detailed”.
Valery Borschev said we, naturally, intend to track the process of creating the instruction. If the accepted instruction actually contradicts with the principles incorporated in the law, we’ll challenge it in the Court, up to the Constitutional Court.
Despite all the amendments, the important position was kept in the law: that precisely the public associations put forward representatives in the observant commissions. However, human rights defenders offered nominees affirmed by the Ombudsman for Human Rights, but it was not passed, and the Public chamber will approve it. Valery Borschev believed that it was not so terrible: there are also legal experts in the Public Chamber; with their help it will be possible to influence the process.
The Public Fund “Social Partnership” has trained potential members of the supervisory commissions for four years. 300 persons have had training in preparation for this time. “So, when the Public Chamber will start the statement of candidacies, we’ll offer the staff that is ready “, Valery Borschev said.
Certainly, it is not necessary to hope for an easy, automatic realization implementation of the law. Valery Borschev considers “The main thing was that it was possible to, after all, affirm the idea of public control and to defend a principle, that members of the commissions are put forward by the public associations”.
