“Citizens Watch” took part in the NGO Open-Door Week, held in St. Petersburg from the 5th to the 11th of June. Meetings were held on the topics of human rights education, public scrutiny, and a legal lecture on interacting with police and officials.
On June 6th the Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg hosted a long-awaited seminar on “Free Legal Aid in Finland and Russia.” These were the first talks held on the subject in the past three years. It was attended by the representative of the Finish Ministry of Justice, the Head of State of Finland’s largest law office, Russian and Finnish advocates, lawyers, directors of lawyer chambers in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, experts and representatives from NGOs in St. Petersburg.
On May 30th students from school № 230 and volunteers from “Citizens Watch” helped to remove hate symbols that had been gratified onto buildings. It is no secret that near some schools in St. Petersburg graffiti and messages of hate call for violence against various social groups (migrants, ethnic groups). Often, these acts of vandalism are overlooked because they are thought to be “harmless Nordic images or runes.”
On May 17th in St. Petersburg a workshop was held on “Documentary Photography as a Condition of Developing Historical Empathy.” The event was held at school № 278 in the context of the Second All-Russian Scientific Practical Conference, “St. Petersburg- the Cultural Capital,” by the Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.
From the 15th to 23rd of March, education was provided about the “Stop Racism” campaign, as part of the International Week of Educational Action. The objective of the campaign is to unite different groups and forces of society: NGOs, civic initiatives, public education socio-cultural institutions, Diasporas, and concerned citizens who wish to demonstrate that it is possible to live and work together without discrimination.
Following a general meeting, Elena V. Shakhova has been announced as the new Chairman of the St. Petersburg human rights organization “Citizens Watch.”
On March 15th, 2013 two new publications by “Citizens Watch” were presented at the St. Petersburg House of Lawyers.
We regret to inform you of the passing of Boris P. Pustyntsev. Boris was a human rights activist, a liberal, a jazz connoisseur, and an unwavering optimist. But most of all, he was a true friend. In recent years, regarding questions about the future of the country Boris Pustyntsev would say “we survived one period of Soviet power, we will survive a second.”
Senior officers of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, Perm Region, studied the experience of the United Kingdom in probation work. The final stage of the training course "Working with offenders in the community" took place in Perm from 25 to 28 February 2013 at the Training Centre for Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia.