International Conference “HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN RUSSIA AND OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES” (21-22.10.2013, Russia, Yekaterinburg) at the annual international forum “Legal Week in the Urals” (21-26.10.2013)

“HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN RUSSIA AND OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES”, International Conference, 21-22 October 2013, Russia, Yekaterinburg, venue - TBA

In 1998, Russia ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in order to ensure the protection of rights - to European standards - of all those under its jurisdiction. Over the last 15 years, more than 1,600 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against Russia have led to many reforms of the Russian legal system: lawyers have begun to defend their clients by invoking the norms of international human rights law, judges are increasingly applying the provisions of international treaties and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, and many lawyers have been trained in the application of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

17 years after its accession to the Council of Europe, has Russia achieved its intended level of adoption of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms? What is the current standard of legal education in Russia with respect to international law and human rights? How do other European countries approach the domestic application and teaching of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ? What lessons can Russia learn from other states?

Conference participants will analyze current approaches to the teaching of human rights law with a specific focus on the application of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Russia and other European countries. The goal of the conference is to exchange international experiences of the adoption of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into legal education and legal practice curricula. Legal professionals and academics from various European countries will share their experience of creating special courses and master degrees focused on the protection - both internationally and domestically - of human rights within the Council of Europe member states’ national legal systems.

The conference participants are legal scholars, attorneys in law, judges, civil cervants and civic activists from Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the USA and Estonia as well as the Council of Europe.

Draft agenda of the conference is the following.

Plenary session I: “Problems of Teaching of Human Rights and Mechanisms for Their Protection”.

1. Professor Dr. Carmen Thiele, Faculty of Law, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. Topic: “Study of human rights at the Faculty of Law of the European University Viadrina, Germany”. The speaker will share German and European experience of running Summer school “The European System of Human Rights Protection” and a special LLM in “International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law”. Attention will be given to the issue of influence of the European Court of Human Rights's judgements on legal education in Germany.

2. Professor William Simons, Visiting Professor of Law, Centre for EU-Russian Studies (CEURUS) Institute of Constitutional and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Tartu, and Professor of East European Law, Faculty of Law, University of Leiden, The Netherlands; General Editor of the monograph series Law in Eastern Europe and of the quarterly law journal Review of Central and East European Law (issued by Brill, Leiden, since 1957 and 1973 respectively). Topic: Dutch law schools are leading institutions in the area of teaching international law and human rights law. The University of Tartu is part of the European MA (E.MA) program in human rights, a consortium of 41 law schools working in human rights education. Having worked in both countries, the speaker will share opportunities and challenges they face.

3. Dr. Serge Slama est maître de conférences à l’Université Evry Val d'Essonne, chercheur au Centre de recherche et d'études sur les droits fondamentaux (CREDOF-Paris-Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense) et visiting scholar au Boston college law. Il est l’un des principaux contributeurs de la Revue des droits de l’homme qui assure une veille analytique et réactive de l’actualité juridique. Il a participé à de nombreuses procédures devant les juridictions françaises et à plusieurs procédures dans le cadre d'amicus curiae devant la Cour de Strasbourg. Il évoquera son expérience de l’enseignement du droit européen dans les universités françaises mais aussi sa connaissance du système d'enseignement américain. Observateur attentif de la jurisprudence des juridictions des deux ordres, il discutera les propos des intervenants précédents.

4. Dr. Marie-Elisabeth Baudoin, Maître de Conférences en Droit public à l'Université d'Auvergne (Professor of Public Law, University of Auvergne), Vice-Dean of the Law School in charge of the International Relations, Co-director of an LLM program in International Law and International Relations. Topic: "How Human Rights Law became an "autonomous" legal subject in France". The speaker will share the experience of teaching European Human Rights Law at the University of Auvergne Law School, but also will discuss the history of teaching European Human Rights Law in France and the influence of ECHR decisions on legal education in France.

5. Salikov Marat Sabirianovich, doctor of law, professor, chair of the constitutional law department, pro-rector of Urals State Law Academy. Topic: «Teaching Human Rights in the Urals State Law Academy».

6. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Benedek, Institute for International Law and International Relations, University of Graz, Director of European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Austria. Topic: “Human Rights Education in an Austrian University and the Europan Univresities Consortium Program E.MA in Human Rights”.

7. Glushkova, Svetlana Igorevna, doctor of political science, Chair of human rights department, director of the Centre for Legal Education and Human Rights at the University for Humanities, visiting professor at the University of Paris - West (France). Topic:: Teaching Human Rights at the University of Humanities and other Russian law schools: main tendencies and challanges.

Plenary session II: “Problems of Application of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Legal Practice”.

8. Mr. Markus Meckel, Foreign Minister of the German Democratic Republic (1990), member of German Bundestag (1990-2009), pastor. Topic: “German and European experiences with both European Convention for Human Rights and the UN Charter of Fundamental Rights. Human Rights and Russia”.

9. Tatiana Termacic, Head of Support to Human Rights National Implementation Unit, Human Rights Policy and Development Department, Directorate of Human Rights, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe. Topic: “The Council of Europe’s role in «bringing human rights home»”.

10. Mme Simone Gaboriau, est présidente de chambre honoraire à la Cour d’appel de Paris, est présidente MEDEL. Elle retracera les grandes évolutions du droit pénal survenues en France sous l’influence de la CEDH et la manière dont elles ont été intégrées par le juge judiciaire. En sa qualité d’administratrice du Mouvement Européen (MEDEL), elle mettra en perspective ces transformations avec celles qu’ont connues d’autres pays du continent. Forte de son expérience d’enseignement à l’ENM, elle exposera la place faite au droit européen dans la formation des magistrats.

11. Timothée Paris, French judge at the Administrative Court of Appeal of Paris and associate professor at the University of Paris-Est-Créteil. Topic: “The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in French Administrative Law: from international law to domestic law”.

12. Me Hugues de Suremain, est avocat au Barreau de Paris et ancien responsable juridique à l’Observatoire international des prisons. Il expliquera comment l’utilisation du droit européen par les détenus a permis l’élaboration d’un droit pénitentiaire en France. Membre d’un réseau européen sur le contentieux carcéral, il rendra compte des initiatives prises pour accélérer la diffusion des exigences européennes en la matière et favoriser les évolutions de la jurisprudence de la CEDH.

13. Sukhareva Natalia Valerievna, Chair of Presidium of Collegium of Advocates «Sverdlovsk Oblast Guild of Advocates», member of the Council of the Advocates Chamber of the Sverdlovsk region, Vice-president of the Guild of Russian Advocates, Honorary advocate of Russia. Topic of intervention: «Application of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: Example of criminal procedure in courts of Yamalo-Enetskiy Automonous Okrug».

14. Dr. Burkov Anton Leonidovich, candidate of legal science, PhD (Cantab), LLM (Essex), head of the European and Comparative law department, University of Humanities. Topic: “TRIED WITHOUT BEING HEARD BY THE COURT: right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the Covention for Human Rights and Article 333 of the Russian Civil Procedure Code”.

Organizers of the conference: Ombudsman in the Sverdlovsk region, Legislative Assembly of Sverdlovsk region, Sverdlovsk Regional Department of the Association of Lawyers of Russia. University for Humanities (Yekaterinburg), Urals State Law Academy, NGO "SUTYAJNIK", Academy of Human Rights, with the support of MATRA program of the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Consulate of Germany in Ekaterinburg, the Embassy of France. The conference is an official event of the 2013 Dutch-Russia Cultural Year. Informational support is by news agency Sutyajnik-Press; journal «Russian Law: Education, Practice, Science»; Center of Legal Practices; internet portal Tsvilistika.

Conference's materials will be published on web-sites of co-organizers of the conference, journal of Constitutionalism and Human Rights, as well as journals of other coorganizers of the conference. Online registration is on http://goo.gl/WAEUam or bellow. Draft agenda is updated daily http://goo.gl/8f3EeG. Questions can be addressed to the chair of the organizing committee Dr. Anton Burkov ab636@cantab.net +79161250593

03.09.2013