"SUTYAJNIK"

Report for 2002 Activity

"WE WILL BE SOON TEN YEARS OLD"

Group of authors:

Bourkov Anton Leonidovich - lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik", lecturer of the UralsStateAcademy of Law.

Bulakova Elena Yurievna- lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik", postgraduate of the UralsStateAcademy of Law. 

Demeneva Anna Valentinovna– lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik", postgraduate of the UralsStateAcademy of Law.

Ermilova Natalia Pavlovna - lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik".

Smolinskaya Kseniya Valerievna - lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik", postgraduate of the UralsStateAcademy of Law.

Editor - Bourkov Anton Leonidovich.

Non-governmental organization "SUTYAJNIK": report for 2002 activity"WE WILL BE SOON TEN YEARS OLD" // Publishing house "Academy for Human Rights", 2003. 

© Group of authors, 2003

© Non-governmental organization "SUTAYJNIK"

© Information agency "SUTAYJNIK-PRESS"

© Publishing house "Academy for Human Rights" 

Table of contents

2. Projects

3.Consultations

4. Publications

5. Representation of interests of citizens and organizations in courts

6. International protection of human rights

7.Arrangements

8. Participation in arrangements of other NGO, funds, state bodies

9. Plans for the future

1. About "Sutyajnik".

Traditionally in Russia calling somebody "a barrator" ("Sutyajnik") means indecent. According to Ozhegov Explanatory Dictionary, a barrator is "a person inclined to lawsuit". This word has a clearly expressed color of criticism. However, in fact, a barrator is a person which knows and uses actively the existing mechanisms of legal protection of his own or public interests. The so-called "barratry" (or, to be more neutral, the legal attendance) is the standard in the civilized democratic society. 

Shame is to complain to one's heads, write letters which stream tears, ask to go into the situation, look into the eyes of a coldblooded official. However, one should not be ashamed of protecting his rights by knowing how to do that. 

So, until this is not accepted in Russia by the multitude (and by press, advance-guard of the multitude) as a norm, speaking about the legal state in our country is like admiring soap bubbles.

So, long live barratry! 

See newspaper "Verkh-NeivinskayaZhizn", No. 4, February 1998.

The President of NGO "Sutyajnik" S.I. Belyaev has managed to construct a peculiar "Law protection incubator", which generates public law protection organizations and brings up their leaders. In fact, the activity of S.I. Belyaev may be called as a school for preparation of professional human right campaigners working, however, under, let's say, the field conditions. 

Working in the structures of "Sutyajnik", young lawyers are practicing in a realistic fight for human rights under our, Russian, conditions. Records include cases of abolishing some elements of law won in the Charter Court, well-prepared seminars and training courses. The most useful thing educated in "Sutyajnik" and its organizations is the relation to the authorities as to equal partners, here people are taught not be drawn up as a string before authorities. 

It is another case that not all people may like the selected forms of public actions carried out from time to time. However, human right campaigners are not blind, they are able to see intrigues carried on by the authorities and directed against them.

The Ombudsman in the Sverdlovsk Oblast about NGO "Sutyajnik" / From the annual report on the Obmudsman's activity in 2002 in the Sverdlovsk Oblast  T.G. Merzlyakova (see Oblastnaya Gazeta, 5 March 2003, p. 16).

Non-governmental organization "Sutyajnik" is a law protection organization established in 29 August 1994 in Yekaterinburg. All aspects of the activity of the organization relate to publicly important legal problems and methods of their solutions. They are directed towards establishing the law practice which corresponds to the international standards of human right protection and aimed at establishing the legal state and civil society. Members of NGO "Sutyajnik" include mainly students of senior courses of law schools which work under leadership of experienced lawyer right campaigners. During their work in NGO "Sutyajnik" they were declared as winners of a contest which was arranged by charitable organization "Open Society Institute Fund of Assistance". 

Five employees of NGO "Sutyajnik" (Bourkov Anton, Goncharova Elena, Ermilova Natalia, Silivanov Alexei, Goncharova Irina) received individual grants for achievements and efficient work in the sphere of law protection activity. Anna Demeneva passed 3-month training in international organization Interights (London, Great Britain), Anton Bourkov became the participant in a two-year program PILI/COLPI Fellowship Program, New-York, USA (Columbia University School of Law), Liudmila Churkina became the participant of a clinical program of training in Budapest. In addition, in 2000, Anton Bourkov was declared as the winner of the first city competition "Profi-Yekaterinburg" in the nomination "jurisprudence" and in the same year, as the laureate of contest "Femida (Themis)" "for contribution in establishing the democratic society and developing institutions of the jural state".

Representation of interests of citizens in the courts is one of the most important directions in the activity of NGO "Sutyajnik". This is mainly relates to civil proceedings. The criterion of acceptance of cases by NGO "Sutyajnik" is their social importance. In other words, it goes about only those cases which may be useful for the unlimited circle of persons, which may protect the rights of not only a single man. Distinguished for the time of operation of the organization may be civil cases connected with abolishing legal acts which contradict the acting legislation. This can be exemplified by the case of complaint of E.A. Arbuzova to the Constitutional Court of Russia concerning acknowledgement unconstitutional p. 2 art. 226 of Administrative Code of RSFSR (CoAP). On 16 February 1998, a judge of Leninsky district court, NizhnyTagil, called chairman of the Free trade union of MP "Medavtotrans" Arbuzova Elena Anatolievna to administrative account under art. 165-10 of CoAP of RSFSR for "wilful failure to fulfill prosecutor's orders which follow from his powers established by the law of Russia" by imposing a RR2,000 fine. The ruling about the administrative punishment was made with an outrage against Arbuzova. According to p. 2, art. 266 of CoAP of RSFSR, the ruling was final, not subject to appeal. Considering provision of CoAP of RSFSR contradicting art. 19, 46 of Constitution of RF, Arbuzova made a complaint to the Constitutional Court of Russia concerning violation of civil rights and freedoms and requested to acknowledge unconstitutional p. 2 art. 266 of CoAP. On 28 May 1999, the Constitutional Court of Russia ruled that p. 2 art. 266 of CoAP is unconstitutional and should be canceled whereas the ruling of the judge as of 16.02.1999 on imposing on Arbuzova a RR2,000 administrative fine revised in the order of the procedural analogy. Owing to this ruling, all Russian citizens got the right of reversal of judgement to bring to administrative account (the case was run by lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik" Anton Bourkov). 

Other priority direction of the activity of NGO "Sutyajnik" is providing to citizens (as a rule, of poor, socially unprotected people) free consultations on legal issues. 

To spread information about the rights of citizens NGO "Sutyajnik" with the help of information agency "Sutyajnik-Press" carries out the active work with the mass media in the following directions: dissemination of information messages, arrangement of press-conferences, publication of consultations on legal issues.

One more project related to the influence of the public on the law system is the annual competition "The most unpopular judge". Assigning a degree of "the most unpopular judges of the year" is one of traditions of "barrators" which received serious support of inhabitants of Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Oblast which happened to experience unfairness of judges. The competition is based on the monitoring of the activity of courts of Ykaterinburg and Sverdlovsk Oblast, public poll which NGO "Sutyajnik" carries out in the course of a year. 

Our competition is an attempt to demonstrate which mistakes may be avoided by taking into account the opinion of citizens at appointing judges. In order to provide the possibility for the population to express loudly we decided to assign annually the rating of "unpopularity". 

2. Projects

In 2002, NGO "Sutyajnik" implemented the following projects:

1)"Olympiad for the best knowledge of European Convention on protection of human rights and main freedoms" with the support of the European Council, Strasbourg. 

2)"Christmas in prison" with the support of the Fund of Civil Freedoms. As part of this project, prisoners under age and those waiting for a court decision received gifts. The purpose of the project was to attract attention to conditions under which prisoners under age are kept in prisons.

3)"Traineeship of lawyers in European Court for Human Rights" with the support of the Institute of international education and international program of traineeships (USA, Washington).

4)"The Urals resource center of constitutional and international protection of human rights" with the support of "Open Society Institute" (Budapest). The project included two parts: 1 - a program of training of lawyers of non-profit organizations of the Urals region in constitutional and international mechanisms of human rights protection, the second part - work of lawyers of NGO "Sutyajnik" on providing legal assistance to citizens in exercising the right for protection of violated rights and freedoms via the mechanisms of the Constitutional Court of Russia, Charter Court of Sverdlovsk Oblast, European Court for Human Rights and Committee on Human Rights at UNO.

5)"Civil control in the court over the procedure of bringing the national law in line with constitutional and international standards" with the support of "Open Society Institute" Soros Foundation (Moscow). The purpose of the project is assistance to citizens in protection of their rights by appeal unlawful acts in the court.

6)"Public internet-conference-center" with the support of McArthur Foundation. The purpose of the project: dissemination of legal knowledge and practice of right protecting activity. 

7)"Obligatory participation in hearing of a case as denial in access to justice" with the support of "Open Society Institute" (Budapest). The essence of the project: overcoming procedural obstacles for the use by citizens of the efficient mechanism of protection of their rights with the help of collective complaints (class actions) in court.

3. Consultations

There are currently two reception rooms operating in Yekaterinburg whereto citizens of Yekaterinburg and Oblast may address on different law issues (civil, family, criminal, housing, labor, constitutional, international, including address to the European Court for Human Rights, etc.). Consultations take place two times a week.

Citizens may also receive assistance in towns Polevskoi and Sysert (consultations take place one time a month). Lawyers provide round-the-clock consultations on the phone, prepare written consultations. 

During a month, on the average 130 citizens receive the consultative aid. For 2002, citizens received 1,552 free legal consultations, including 883 consultations by phone, 412 consultations in reception rooms of the organization with execution of procedural documents, 257 written consultations. 

4. Publications

It starts the series of publications "International human rights protection". The book is dealing with procedural issues of taking the recourse to the European Court for human rights, criteria of acceptability of complaints, the order of proceedings in the Court, issues of amicable settlement, fair compensation and control over execution of Court decisions. 

The financing of this edition was made at the support of the British government Now-How Fund through Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

In 2002, the book was distributed among lawyers of non-profit organizations, mass media, teachers and students of law of higher educational institutions, representatives of charitable funds. 

Prepared and distributed 

Methodical Manuals:

1.Collection of articles "Practice of Application of European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Main Freedoms", edited by BulakovaE.Yu. 

2."Collective Contracts and Agreements in Questions and Answers" - lawyer Demeneva A.V.

3."Application of Federal law On Trade Unions, Their Rights and Guarantees of Activity in the Light of Labor Code of RF" - lawyer Ermilova N.P.

Information leaflets:

1. "What CTS is?" - lawyerSmolinskaya K.V.

2. "Self-Protection of Labor Rights" - lawyer Smolinskaya K.V.

3. Information bulletin "FAS: facts, analysis, events" (issued twice a month). 

Publications of lawyers of organization in the mass media.

 

Author	Name of article	Subject matter of article	Source of publication
Guzeva E.	"Right for law protection", "Are these guarantees?"	Articles deal with problem of appeal to Constitutional Court of Russia of article 226 of Civil Procedural Code of RSFSR	"Yuridicheskayagazeta", May 2002, "Yuridicheskyvestnik", No. 7, April 2002
Smolinskaya K.V.	"Living premise - not very private property?"	Article deals with the right of owner of living premise for free disposal of his property.	"Yuridicheskymir",  May 2002
Guzeva E., Ermilova N.	"Sutyajnik believes himself"	The article deals with appeal of Resolution of Government of RF "On approval of resolution on licensing activity on collection, processing and sale of scrap of nonferrous metals", also with problem of appeal of presidential decrees	"Yuridicheskyvestnik", No.9, May 2002
Ermilova N.	"The right for court protection: is it next declarative norm of Constitution?"	Article on impossibility to appeal Decrees of President of Russia	"Arbitrazhnyi i grazhdanskyprotsess", June 2002.
Goncharova E., Guzeva E.	"Fast and fair court"	Article about first decision of European Court on human rights protection on Burdov case and about its affect on Russian legal and law enforcing practice	"Yuridicheskyvestnik", No.14, July 2002
Demeneva А.	"When people are against Russia?"	Main rules of having recourse to European Court on human rights protection and its powers	"Nasha gazeta", 26.07.2002
Churkina L.	"Grief from brains", "Second diploma is not crank"	Article about restriction of constitutional right for education by articles 173-176 of Labor Code of Russia	"Yuridicheskayagazeta", No. 34, August 2002, "Yuridicheskyvestnik", September 2002
Goncharova Е.	"Do you want help from the Europe?"	Article about most frequently occurred mistakes of citizens at appeals to European Court for human rights protection	Newspapaer "Mayak", No. 78, 28.08.2002
Romanova Е.	"Appeal againstclaim in trap of GPK"	Article deals with problems of appeal against court decisions on appeal against claim.	"Domashniadvokat", No. 15, 2002;  "Yuridicheskymir", September 2002
MukhambetovaS.	"Right for quick judgement - myth or reality?"	Article deals with meeting by court system of RF of European standards of justice.	"Yuridicheskymir",September 2002
Smolinskaya K.	"Where here is "my" judge?"	Article deals with dislocation and specialization of judges of district courts.	"Yuridicheskyvestnik", October 2002; "Yuridicheskymir", September 2002
Smolinskaya K.	"What are these terms?"	Article deals with nature of limitation on labor disputes.	"Yuridicheskayagazeta", "Yuridicheskymir", September 2002
Demeneva А.	"Protection of rights of legal entities in European court for human right protection"	Article deals with peculiarities of complaints made by organizations to European court for human right protection.	"Business advokat", September 2002; "Yuridicheskyvestnik", October 2002; "Yuridicheskymir", December 2002
Goncharova Е.	"Juggle and no cheat?"	Article deals with meeting by Russia its international legal obligations.	"Business advokat", September 2002; "Yuridicheskayagazeta", October 2002
Demeneva А.	"Psychiatrists, not evil-doers"	Article deals with protection of rights of persons staying at psychiatric institutions.	"Yuridicheskyvestnik", September 2002
Bourkov А.	"Applying act to act"	Article deals with problem of execution of court decisions on invalidity of legal acts.	"Business advokat" No. 22, November 2002
Bourkov А.	"Letters to native land. Letter 1: Cultural shock"	Article deals with study of lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik" in ColumbiaUniversitySchool of law (USA, New-York).	Newspaper of UrGYuA "Yurist", December 2002
Bourkov А.	"Execution of legal acts on acknowledgement of legal acts illegal"	Article deals with problem of execution of court decisions which acknowledge illegal elements of law and acts in the whole invalid.	Magazine "Grazhdanin i Pravo", No. 11/12, 2002; magazine "Arbitrazhnyi i grazhdanskyprotsess", No. 11, 2002
Muromskaya I.	"UPK" is it a step towards meeting European standards?"	Article deals with new order of submitting and considering applications on supervision objection and its meeting the standard of efficient measures of legal protection in meaning of articles of European Convention on human rights protection.	"Yuridicheskyvestnik", December 2002
RomanovaЕ.	"Not everything is that good"	Article deals with negative moments of Labor Code of Russia	"ZhurnalRossiiskogoPrava", No. 12, 2002
Demeneva А.	"Legal aid to patients in theory and in practice"	On exercising rights by persons suffered from mental disorder.	Magazin "Pravozashchitnik", No. 4, 2002

5. Representation of interests of citizens and organizations in courts 

Lawyers of the organization participate as representatives of citizens and organizations in law courts ofSverdlovsk Oblast (cities Ykaterinburg, NizhnyTagil, Polevskoi, Berezovsky, Krasnoturinsk and others), Tiumen, Cheliabinsk Oblasts, in Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, in arbitration courts of the Urals Federal District of all levels, Charter Court of Sverdlovsk Oblast. The number of court hearings per month – 45-55, per year – about 600. 

Interests in the court are represented on the following cases:

·appeal against norms of law of bodies of state and municipal power and officials which injure rights and freedoms of citizens;

·appeal against unlawful actions (failure to act) of bodies of state and municipal power and their officials (denial of Committee on housing policy to inspect a premise, non-payment of the money for participation in military actions in Chechnya and others);

·cases on protection of housing rights, human honor and dignity, consumer rights, pension rights, reimbursement for material and moral damage caused by unlawful actions (failure to act) of medical personnel, etc.;

·cases on reinstating, recovery of mistakenly calculated and paid wages, removal of disciplinary punishment, granting additional vacations, denial of signing a collective agreement, fixing percentage of loss of working ability, acknowledgement job descriptions invalid and not allowed to apply, denial of submitting information on social and labor issues, improper certification of working places, etc. 

·representation of interests of persons suffered from exceeding authorities by police bodies.

As part of the project "Civil control of the court over brining national law in line with constitutional and international standards" more than 30 acts were appealed in the Constitutional Court of Russia, Supreme Court of Russia, Charter Court of Sverdlovsk Oblast. 11 complaints of citizens were prepared to the Constitutional Court of Russia concerning acknowledgement unconstitutional of a number or federal laws. In particular, complaints were concerned provisions of Civil Procedure Code of RSFSR, Labor Code of Russia.

Acknowledged as not complied with the Russian legislation were the following legal acts: 

1)on 25 January 2002, the Charter Court of Sverdlovsk Oblast acknowledged that item 4.6 of provision On the order of organization and carrying out in Ykaterinburg of meetings, street shows, demonstrations and picketing does not meet the Charter of Sverdlovsk Oblast;

2)April 2002, the Charter Court acknowledged items 2 and 3 of article 16 of the Charter of Ykaterinburg city as not meeting the Charter of Sverdlovsk Oblast;

3)on 24 April 2002, the Constitutional Court of Russia decreed, decree No. 114-O, on complaint of Vakhonin A.I. and SmerdovS.D. concerning violation of their constitutional rights by part 3 of article 220.2 of Criminal Procedure Code RSFSR; 

4)on 20 August 2002, the Sverdlovsk regional court declared as not meeting the federal law item 5 of article 39 of the Law of Sverdlovsk Oblast On local self-government in Sverdlovsk Oblastwhich grants a head of a municipality the right to block acts approved by a representative body; 

5)on 3 October 2002, the Resolution of Yekaterinburg mayor dated 23 January2002 On increase inpublic transport fare was declared invalid; 

6)on17 October 2002, the Supreme Court of Russia acknowledged paragraph 282 of tariff guideline No. 5 of the Ministry of Railroad Transport which prohibited the return of an unused ticket for suburban trains as not complying with the relevant federal law.

6. International protection of human rights

About 23% consultations to citizens represented consultations concerning the appeal to the European Court of human rights protection and to the Committee on Human Rights at UNO.

On 5 March 2002, on one of the organization proceedings, the European Court of human rights decided on eligibility of a complaint made by a citizen of Yekaterinburg concerning violation of article 5 of the Convention which guarantees the right for freedom and personal immunity in the course of involuntary placement in the psychiatric hospital. The decision on eligibility of the complaint of Rakevich as of 05.03.2002 see on the site of the European Court of human rights: http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/hudoc. The translation of the decision into Russian see on the Urals right protection sitehttp://www.humanrights.by.ru (the case is under the instance of Anna Demeneva). 

7. Arrangements

Conducted during the year were 6 two-, three- and five days seminars for representatives of public organizations on issues of international mechanisms of the human right protection (appeal to the European Court for human rights, UNO Committee on Human Rights) as part of projects "Overcoming corruption in judicial system by ensuring transparency of justice" as part of project "Urals resource center of constitutional and international protection of human rights".

In 2002, NGO "Sutyajnik" arranged and conducted 19 seminars for active trade unionists on issues of the labor right. The total duration of these seminars was 188 training hours, 340 people were taught on the following topics: 

 

Topic of seminar	Total number of training hours	Number of persons received training
Material responsibility of parties to labor agreement  In 2002, the seminar took place twice: Once according to program designed for 14 training hours, once according to program designed for 2 training hours.	16	37
Novels of Labor Code of Russia In 2002, the seminar took place 5 times: Four times according to program designed for 14 training hours, once according to program designed for 2 training hours.	58	115
Working time, rest time. Peculiarities of regulation of job of single categories of employees. In 2002, the seminar took place 2 times: Four times according to program designed for 14 training hours, once according to program designed for 2 training hours.	16	37
Motivation of trade union membership. In 2002, the seminar took place 3 times: Two times according to program designed for 14 training hours, once according to program designed for 20 training hours.	48	55
Labor protection: problems and possibilities of trade union organization. In 2002, the seminar took place once.	14	20
Participation of trade union in civil proceedings. In 2002, the seminar took place once.	14	18
Novels in legal regulation of work of commission for labor disputes. In 2002, the seminar took place 2 times: Once according to program designed for 14 training hours, once according to program designed for 2 training hours.	16	38
Novels on legal regulation of issues of labor payment. The seminar took place once.	2	14
Self-protection of labor rights of employees. In 2002, the seminar took place once.	2	11
Out-of-court methods of labor rights protection. In 2002, the seminar took place once.	2	12
Total: 19 seminars	188	340

Conferences

On 24 December 2002, NGO "Sutyajnik", in cooperation with public foundation "PRAVOBORETS" with the support of Open Society Institute (Budapest) and Open Society Institute Soros Foundation carried out the scientific conference "Judicial protection of human rights in its most efficient forms". Participants in the conference included representatives of bodies of the state power, presidential human rights Ombudsmanin Sverdlovsk Oblast, participants in the law science in the Urals region and active participants from right protection organizations. During the conferences, problem points of law were revealed. These points will be executed in the form of a collection of theses. 

Monitoring

1)Monitoring of obeying the right for fair proceedings as part of project "Overcoming of corruption in judicial system by ensuring transparency of justice";

2)Monitoring of detention centers in Sverdlovsk Oblast as part of project MKHG "Network of right protection monitoring";

3)Monitoring of violation of human rights in Sverdlovsk Oblast;

Other arrangements

On 11-30 September 2002, in the Library of the Yekaterinburg city Mayor (Yekaterinburg) and on 4-30 October 2002, in the Palace of Culture of Metallurgists (Serov, Sverdlovsk Oblast) an exhibition of amateur photos of the participant of rescue jobs of the Ground Zero, lawyer of NGO "Sutyajnik" Anton Bourkov, devoted to 11 September 2001 Word Trade Center tragedy in New York, took place under the title "Down Broadway or the tragedy trough the eyes of Russian volunteer".

On 27 September 2002, the final tour of the Olympiad for best knowledge of the European Convention on human rights and main freedoms protection and main precedents of the European Court took place in the Charter Court of Sverdlovsk Oblast.

In February-March 2002, with the support of the Civil Freedoms Foundation, the action "Christmas in prison" took place. As the result, about 1,200 teenagers kept in prisons received individual gifts. 

On 9 April 2002, a picket took place devoted to hearing by the Qualification Board of the Court an issue on pre-scheduled termination of powers of the judge of the federal court of Kirovsky district of Yekaterinburg Bogdanchikova S.V. The picket was part of the project "Overcoming of corruption in judicial system by ensuring transparency of justice" in cooperation with public foundation "PRAVOBORETS". 

Every year, on 28 April, the organization observes "The day in memory of those injured and died at work". This action is devoted to problems of increased traumatism at enterprises and responsibility of employers and state for ensuring the work safety.

8. Participation in arrangements of other NGO, funds, state bodies

·Training of lawyer of organization Anton Bourkov at Columbia University School of Law (New York, USA 2001-2002) on "PILI/COLPI Fellowship Program".

·Annual meeting of trainees "PILI/COLPI Fellowship Program", lake Balaton, Hungary, 7-9 July 2002 (COLPI/PILI Human Rights and Public Interest Law Fellows Retreat). Participation of Anton Bourkov with a report on issues of compulsory participation of co-plaintiffs in the hearing as an obstacle to access to justice. 

• A one-week business trip to Washington of the official representative of NGO "Sutyajnik" in New York Anton Bourkov (5-12 May 2002). Meetings were carried out on issues of cooperation and coordination of joint activities with the National Institute of Democracy, American Center of International Solidarity of Workers, Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, National Fund to Support Democracy and American Association of Lawyers.

• Participation of lawyers of the organization Elena Guzeva, Ekaterina Romanova, Ksenia Smolinskaya, Natalia Ermilova in a program of studying international mechanisms of human rights protection arranged by the Warsaw Helsinki Committee for human rights (Medzeszin, Poland, April 2002).

• Participation of lawyers of the organization Elena Bulakova and Anna Demeneva in the program "Support of development of human rights in Russia" arranged by the Academy of international education of USA. (Chicago, USA, May 2002). 

• Participation of lawyers of the organization Natalia Ermilova and Anna Demeneva in sessions of the round table "Protection of human rights in the European Court of human rights protection" arranged by the Center of assistance to international protection (Moscow, September-December 2002).

• Participation of the lawyer of the organization Natalia Ermilova in the seminar of Nizhny Novgorod society of human rights (Nizhny Novgorod, November 2002).

• Participation of the lawyer of the organization Liudmila Churkina in training for representatives of non-state organizations and civil servants for work with the youth (Budapest, Hungary, September 2002).

• Participation of the lawyer of the organization Liudmila Churkina in the program of Warsaw Helsinki Committee "Higher Course on Human Rights" (Warsaw, Poland).

• Participation of lawyers of the organization in the conference "Who are the judges?" arranged by the inter-regional center of human rights (November 2002).

9. Plans for the future.

"Sutyajnik" is the oldest public right protection organization in the Urals. It is already 8 years old. The president of "Sutyajnik" Sergei Belyaev tells Region-Inform about the results of work, about protection of interests of a "little" man and about the counter-action to the power administrative machine of the large city.

– Sergei Ivanovich, how did your organization change for the period of its existence and what does it represent nowadays? 

– We are preparing to celebrate a decade of our existence. For this time, many hundreds of lawyers passed through "Sutyajnik", young men and girls with active living position. Some of them are now working in spheres of the economy, business, policy, public prosecutions department. All of them use experience gained during 1-2 years of work in "Sutyajnik". At present, about twenty young lawyers are working in the organization, part of them is still studying, part of them is defending theses and some people with higher education are working here full-time. There are people which work in the organization already several years. 

- Does "Sutyajnik" coordinate its work with similar right protection organizations from other Russian regions or other countries?

– Certainly. Many projects under our implementation are joint programs. Specialists which work abroad carry out training and seminars here, share experience. Our employees receive training abroad. What are organizations we specifically cooperate with? For example, Interights (London), Central European Institute (Budapest), Helsinki fund of human rights protection. As far as Russia is concerned, we are known in all corners of the country since "Sutyajnik" is one of the most popular organizations. Our people took part in various arrangements from Vladivostok to St.-Petersburg. 

– Approximately how many people received assistance from your organization? How many cases did you win for years of your existence? 

- We provided assistance to thousands of citizens which addressed us for aid. Since 1994, we have provided more than 8 thousand consultations to citizens and non-profit organizations, won more than 700proceedings to protect public interests. We initiated abolishing by law more than 80 unlawful decrees of bodies of local self-government and state power. In general, I believe, we did well.

Our plans include to celebrate, as deserved, our ten-year anniversary, continue the active law protection activity, including with the use of international means of protection which requires our presence in the international market.