Speech by E.A. Pamfilova at the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights: "Effective functioning of human rights mechanisms"

Geneva, April 13, 2005

I head a public structure under the President of Russia, which in less than three years of work has accumulated unique experience in the interaction of representatives of Russian civil society with the country's highest authorities, and first and foremost – with the President. Together with my colleagues – leaders of leading Russian human rights organizations – we began working as members of the Commission on Human Rights under the President of Russia in 2002, exclusively on a voluntary basis. This allowed us, on the one hand, to maintain a certain independence from the state and the authorities, and on the other – to defend positions before the President on the most acute problems in the human rights sphere, proceeding precisely from public interests, rather than to please the narrow departmental approaches of our state bureaucracy.

Relying, first and foremost, on the public initiatives of many non-governmental organizations, their rich experience of live work and expert resources, we managed to find the President's support in a number of areas. In particular, the President supported our proposals on:

• The humanization of criminal procedure policy
• The reform of the penitentiary system
• The development of mechanisms for public control over the observance of human rights in places of detention
• The introduction of alternative methods of punishment
• Solving the problems of internally displaced persons from the Chechen Republic
• Problems of citizenship and migration
• The protection of the rights of military personnel

Our proposals on limiting the interference of law enforcement agencies in the financial and economic activities of enterprises of various forms of ownership were also supported. Quite recently, we managed to change the position of the authorities in the field of environmental protection, in the part concerning the preservation of state nature reserves.

Working closely with the NGO community in defending the interests of people, restoring their violated rights, and overcoming arbitrariness on the part of both state and non-state officials, we have come to the disappointing conclusion that more and more help is required for the non-governmental organizations themselves, and especially –

(+) Support from VVP [Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin]

(-) Shortcomings
Support for NGOs should be greater.

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Who is this [arrow pointing to "non-state officials"]

Human Rights Movement Support in Russia

• In September of last year, the President of Russia signed the Decree "On additional measures of state support for the human rights movement in the Russian Federation."
• The goal of the Decree is not to "feed" or "tame" human rights activists, but to establish more effective interaction with state structures, ensuring that the representation of human rights organizations in advisory and consultative bodies at the federal and regional levels is more significant.
• Analysis of regional Human Rights Commissions showed a pattern: commissions consisting mainly of officials with few NGO representatives are often overly formalized, sluggish, and ineffective, becoming mere bureaucratic appendages of the authorities without public authority.
• This Decree marks the first step toward changing the nature of human rights advisory and consultative bodies at the district and regional levels.
• New initiatives are being prepared to expand NGO capabilities, create modern financing mechanisms, and ensure financial stability, provided they maintain independence from the state in their activities.

The Russian Non-Profit Sector

• The Russian non-profit sector (comprising over 600,000 organizations) plays a notable role in the country's socio-economic life, acting as a source of social innovation.
• It develops dynamically and works effectively even with unstable financing based on voluntary contributions from legal entities and individuals.
• State support, in the form of receipts from various budget levels and extra-budgetary funds, accounts for only 1.2% of the total NGO funding.

Challenges and Future Steps

• The potential of Russian NGOs remains significantly untapped.
• A restraining factor is the tax legislation regarding NGOs and charity, which is criticized by both Russian and foreign experts.
• To create conditions for the normal development of civil society, the President, based on the need, transformed the Commission into the Presidential Council for Promoting the Development of Civil Society Institutions via a subsequent Decree.

(Handwritten note in top right: (4) VVP Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin against Podrabinek)

Conclusion 1

Problems and assignments

• VVP [Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin] $\downarrow$ (+) shitty state and children in general.
• ?? + are they not needed by the state?

Why!

VVP

gov level

...reforms – from the notorious "monetization" to reforms in education, healthcare, and housing and communal services. Based on our negative experience of working with the Government on the law on "monetization," when it did not listen to the public and experts, did not take into account the results of the Council's public expertise on this issue, and, in fact, discredited the very idea of monetization in the eyes of the population, the Council intends to present to the President the results of the public expertise of all announced reforms that affect the interests of the country's population. We hope that this will help, even at the preparation stage, to involve independent experts in the discussion, place the reforms being prepared under public control, and prevent their possible negative consequences for the population. Unfortunately, our high-ranking government officials have not learned any lessons from the negative experience of their predecessors. They have still not learned to reckon with people's opinions when carrying out reforms, do not consider it necessary to explain in detail what they are doing and for what purpose, and have not learned to think about people. Considering themselves democratic, liberal people, they, at the same time, are trying to literally by force impose the liberalization of the economy and the social sphere using crude Bolshevik methods, without reckoning with people. It is this that causes mass protests and rejection among people, and not the reforms themselves or democratic values.

Public Opinion

This is also evidenced by recent public opinion polls. According to the Public Opinion Foundation, the majority of Russian residents associate democracy, first and foremost, with freedom and the rights of citizens, popular rule, and law and order; at the same time, 34% believe that there is still not enough democracy in the country. Incidentally, the majority of Russians – 29% – consider the current times, under President Putin, to be the most democratic. The times of Mikhail Gorbachev's stay in power are considered democratic by no more than 11%, and the years of Boris Yeltsin's presidency are assessed as democracy by only 9% of those surveyed.

Civil Society

All this testifies to the fact that we have a civil society, and it is developing rapidly; people are learning to defend their interests, and the Council's task is to facilitate this. That is why, together with the Human Rights Commissioner in the Russian Federation, the Council is developing a state program for civic education and the cultivation of democratic character.