NGO Sutyajnik Update by Anton Burkov

Sutyanik’s recent and upcoming activities include the following:

-- Sutyajnik is now preparing for its tenth Anniversary in August 2004. A special annual report for the tenth year of activity will be issued in the beginning of 2004.

-- In August, 2003 Anton Burkov, a 2001-2003 COLPI/PILI Public Interest Law Fellow, a Sutyajnik attorney and program coordinator, was awarded the Chevening Scholarship to study for an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law at the University of Essex (Colchester, UK), where he is currently based. Upon his return, Anton will lead the international branch of the NGO Sutyajnik and teach at the Urals State Law Academy.

-- From 25 September until 10 October 2003 Ludmila Churkina, a lawyer and program manager with Sutyajnik, participated in the fourth session of the II International Advanced Course in Human Rights Defence in Switzerland, France and Netherlands. This gave her an opportunity to visit international organizations including the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations, the Red Cross, the European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Court of Justice and the International Arbitrary Court. For two weeks, 30 participants from the Commonwealth of Independent States met representatives of these international organizations (the acting High Commissioner, lawyers and judges of the European Court of Human Rights, the Secretary of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly and other distinguished people) and discussed their activities and roles in international human rights protection. This trip presented an opportunity to receive more precise instruction on the international mechanisms of human rights protection and will encourage better use of the information thereby obtained.

-- In May 2004, Sutyajnik will publish a book entitled Right to a Fair Trial: European Standards and Russian Practice. It will be the second volume of the series “International Human Rights Protection”. The authors are: Jeremy McBride, senior lecturer of Birmingham University and Vice-President of the International Center for the Legal Protection for Human Rights “Interights,” Anna Demeneva and Elena Goncharova, lawyers with the Urals Center for Constitutional and International Human Rights Protection, and Svetlana Muchambetova, a lawyer with Social Fund “Pravoborets”. The book contains a legal analysis of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and precedents of the European Court. Also several Russian authors explore the Russian judicial practice and existing problems in the sphere of the right to a fair trial.

-- An article entitled Probable Legal Consequences of the Case of Rakevich v. Russia by Ann Demeneva and Anton Burkov, Sutyajnik lawyers and program managers, is due to be published in summer, 2004 Nottinghem University Human Rights Law Review Students Supplement. The article gives the background to and details of the Rakevich v. Russia case, in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Russia following a hearing on 17 June, 2003. The authors of the article investigate the possible influence of the case on Russian administrative law and practice.

Briefly about Sutyajnik. The human rights resource centre (NGO) Sutyajnik, founded in Yekaterinburg in 1994, defends the rights and interests of non-governmental public interest groups and provides free legal assistance to low income citizens. Sutyajnik’s main areas of activities are http://www.sutyajnik.ru/eng