Human rights in Russia today Mr Sergei Nikitin, Former Director of the Amnesty International office in Moscow

Event details

Learning from Human Rights Defenders

Human rights is often referred to by the Russian media and authorities as ‘so-called human rights’, a Western invention rather than the ‘traditional values’ of Russia. The universality of human rights is often denied. In this talk, Sergei Nikitin will describe the difficulties experienced by human rights defenders in Russia including police harassment and the attempted closure of the Amnesty office.

In 2008 Amnesty’s changed its rules of engagement in Russia to permit taking up human rights abuses in Russia itself. Nikitin then was able to lobby, facilitate peaceful demonstrations, and promote human rights education amongst law enforcement officers and in schools. He was also able to monitor the human situation in the North Caucasus, Georgia and the Crimea. He remains in touch with human rights defenders in Russia and will describe some of their achievements and their current predicament. He will refer to the unprecedented corruption, the huge gap between the rich and the poor, and the stagnation of the economy despite huge profits from the export of raw materials.