The potential of the Charter for the promotion of human rights education in the member states: Russian case Alexander Sungurov Round Table with the National Human Rights Structures of Council of Europe member States Madrid, Palacio del Senado September 2010.

1. HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION: RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE

Human Rights Education in Russia: possible participants 1. Ministry of Education and Science 2. Committee for Youth Affairs, Ministry of Sport 3. Presidential Council for Civil Society Development and Human Rights 4. Commissioner for Human Rights of Russian Federation 5. Commissioners for Human Rights in Russian Regions (Subjects of Russian Federation) 6. Human Rights NGOs 7. Universities

Ministry of Education and Science Very moderate activity in field of HR education – Instructive letter about development of civil education 2007 – Instructive letter about introduction of lessons for human rights in high school (after G8 summit in St.Petersburg) Later – experiments with religion lessons in school. No visible reaction to CoE HR Charter

Committee for Youth Affairs, Ministry of Sport Chair of Committee, Vasiliy Yakemenko, Simultaneously – leader of Youth pro-Putin Movement ‘Nashi’, created by him in for resistance to ‘color revolutions’. Every year they organize Youth Summer Campus at the lake Seliger, where participants are object of strong anti-western and xenophobic propaganda. This activities are in direct opposition to idea of CoE HR-education Charter

Presidential Council for Civil Society Development and Human Rights Real attempts to create Federal Program for Civil and Human Rights Education ( ). Support of President Putin, but opposition of Ministry of Education… 2009: Critics of ‘Seliger activity’ 2010: Initiative for Destalinization 2011: Recommendations to President Medvedev for development of human rights education. This activities are in the spirit of CoE HR-education Charter, but any connotations with it are absent

Commissioner for Human Rights of Russian Federation Organizer of Competitions for Human Rights Essays for Youth Participant of Human Right conferences During re-organization of office three years ago department for civil and human rights education was cancelled. Absence of visible reaction to CoE HR- education Charter

Commissioners for Human Rights in Russian Regions Now their offices exist in 65 Russian Regions Some of them produces real activities for Human Rights and Civil Educations Kaliningrad’s Ombudsman Irina Vershinina produced in 2005 Special Report about Civil Education problems in region. Bryansk’s Ombudsman Boris Kopyrnov initiated creation of region civic education program

Commissioners for Human Rights in Russian Regions Ombudsman of Stavropol Kray Alexey Selyukov organized special network of human rights education in cooperation with youth libraries of region’s cities and villages Majority of region ombudsman organized competitions of student’s papers for human rights topics and some conferences. They organized human rights lessons in school and conferences devoted to human rights

Activities of Tatyana Margolina, Ombudsman of Perm Kray (region) Are the best example of the system approach to human right and civil education. She is co-organizer of region program for democracy education, which is work 10 years She is co-organizer of summer all-Russia festival ‘Pilorama’ in the former prison for political prisoners She invited to position of her deputy and commissioner for human rights of Pavel Mikov, leader of HR-education NGO

Human Rights NGOs They responsible for the main activities in field of human rights education in Russia. They work with a very little support of Russian officials, and very often – with oppositions with them Moscow school for Human Rights (A.Azarov), Youth Center for human Rights, Moscow (V.Luhovotskiy), Center for civic education and human rights, Perm (A.Suslov) Ryazan School for Human Rights (S.Ivanova)

Association for Civil Education Association of school teachers, involving in civic education and human rights education. Works on the base of professional newspaper ‘Uchitelskaya gazeta’ This newspaper published in October 2010 text of CoE HR-education Charter Center for Civic Education (Tatyana Bolotina) – methodical Center for HR-education, in alliance with Ministry of Education

Russian Universities Many years were outside of HR-education Last two years – in Moscow, under initiative of Dich Haberger, representative of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Was created inter-university magister program for Human Rights (MGIMO, RUDN (Lumumba university) and RGGU. Analogy program started on Higher school of Economic, Moscow

Research in Human Rights In 2004 in Russian Association of Political Science was established Research Committee for Human Rights. Some conferences and seminars was organized by this Research Committee, The last conference, in April 2010, in MGIMO – together with Consortium of University HR- magister program

In April, 2011, President Medvedev signed official document ‘The Basis of Russian Federation Policy in the Field of Development of Law Competence and Legal awareness’ Principles of this policy: Legality, democracy, humanism; correspondence with patriotic, labor, ecology and other kinds of educations; collaboration of the state with institutes of civil society and confessions.

2. POSSIBLE WAYS IN WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS COULD USE THE CHARTER IN THEIR FUTURE WORK

The main condition for such using Is the real will of the heads of this Institutes for development of human rights and civil education. If such will is exist, that we have various ways of such use

The main way Is the promotion of information about this Charter in national public space It is possible through support of publication of Charter in newspaper and magazine Or through special discussions and round tables Or through TV and Radio programs This Charter must be real subject of public discussions in national, regional and local levels

Secondary, NHRI could be Organize expertise of some official document in field of public education – how idea and statements of Charter are reflected in this documents, in official conceptions, standards and programs. Thirdly, NHRI could to make inquiry for the Ministry of Education about it’s plane for use Charter in ministry activities

The results of this expertise and requests Could be subjects of special chapter in the Annual reports of Ombudsman or other NHRI At last, but not at least, NHRI could to initiate some national or regional programs for civic and human rights education, where Charter could be play one of the central roles