In January of 2015 Human rights defenders of the Urals made analytical report on law violations of rights of convicts in the correctional facilities of the Sverdlovsk region and sent it to federal bodies in order to inform them about current situation in the penitentiary system of the region. In February of 2015 we got the first responses from state bodies.
The first one was from Ombudsman’s office in the Russian Federation. In general, they have evaluated favourably. Officers have pointed out effective work of human rights defenders in the field of challenging at the Supreme Court denial of access for defenders and lawyers who want to provide convicts with legal help and consultations.
Besides, defenders have been notified that at the Ombudsman’s office was made decision to check actions of the Federal Service for Execution of punishment to correct found violations.
Also at the Ombudsman’s office have mentioned that there are some cases when defenders only point out violations and they suggested to post information how defenders change it in order to show effectiveness of defenders’ work.
The second response was from the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Basically, defenders have been told that their report on law violations in the Sverdlovsk region had been sent to the Federal Service for Execution of punishment and that’s it.
Apparently, information about violations is not worth of attention of President and his Administration. In point of defenders’ view, work with citizens’ or organizations’ letters comes down to one thing: to send all letters from people into different state bodies; like it’s up to you.
Then this brings up the question: why does society pay for officers and the Administration of the President if they only put papers from one place to other? Are there any departments in the Administration which deal with serious analysis of such reports? If yes, why this department doesn’t work? Why don’t they analyze problems from the regions of Russia in the field of human rights? Exactly for these purposes Human rights defenders of the Urals provide the Administration with analytical reports of human rights.
Human rights defenders of the Urals
Photo: Dmitry Lekay/Kommersant
