More human rights, more Russian and more understanding

Aug 17, 2000
Anna Pridanova

Markelova attended a human rights international summer school in Riga.

"That was what our professor said, and it was a little discovery to me," said Markelova. "I think that is a problem with all former Soviet countries."

For the last two weeks, 15 lawyers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latvia and Lithuania took classes arranged by the University of Latvia Human Rights Institute.

All classes were taught in Russian. It was chosen as a working language on request of the Council of Europe, said Vineta Skujeniece, the project manager.

Since the majority of law schools teach in English, Russian was chosen to encompass more students, especially those who speak the language common for the former Soviet republics.

Local and internationally recognized experts, such as Gudmundur Alfredson from Norway and Martin Sheinin from Finland, gave courses in their particular fields, such as economic rights, minority rights and civil rights.

There were not only lawyers but also state prosecutors and foreign and internal affairs officials.

"On the one hand, yes, Latvia has something to teach other countries," said Martins Mits, director of the hosting human rights institute and lecturer of the school. "But on the other hand, Latvia itself has to learn a lot from them. And this was one of this school's goals."

Justice Minister Ingrida Labucka in her address to the students also said Latvia can learn from other countries.

Eline Steinerte, a law student from Latvia, said she came to the school to get a general picture of human rights law.

"We can look at one case from the perspective of different legal systems, because human rights are a part of international laws," she said.

Keeping balance between interest and information was one of the major challenges for the lecturers, because students had very diverse preliminary knowledge. Some had already studied human rights as a separate discipline, such as the Latvians, while the other students were less advanced and studied human rights only in the context of international relations, which is the case in most CIS countries.

"They had intuitive understanding," said Inita Tare, a lecturer. "Still, many of them did not realize the versatility of the subject, that one question might have several aspects, which are connected not only to the human rights, but also, as in case of economic rights, to administrative and state financial abilities to provide them."

Tare said sometimes students had different opinions according to their state's economic situation.

"A typical example of cultural difference was in relation to sex discrimination in the labor market. Students from Azerbaijan raised the point that women do not have to work at all, that a man is the family supporter, but a woman has to stay at home. But other participants opposed this point eagerly," said Tare.

"Here citizens have more opportunities to protect their rights," said Irina Sobol from Belarus, concerning the Baltic states.

Sobol works as a prosecutor on criminal cases and is a member of a women's lawyer association.

"I saw here what we should strive towards. I am not saying that we have no legal protection (in Belarus), but here states have reached another level," she said.

"In the field of human rights, it is easier to speak about problems, and not achievements," said Mits. According to him, these countries have a common problem because of the lack of education on human rights.

"We have rather good legislation, but officials don't understand the idea of human rights well enough to apply it properly, and cannot reach proportionality between violation and punishment," he said.

"The only contradictory case we resolved was a Chechnya case," said Mariam Grigorian from Armenia, working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "I supported a 'pro' position in the vote for Chechnya independence as a human rights specialist, not a person.

"Still the group against independence won the vote, because the majority were Russians."

"In Latvia the question is language," said Markelo-va. "I would not say it is a question in Russia, but other aspects, such as misunderstanding of importance of human rights and lack of knowledge among citizens, are very common."

Asked whether Latvia can teach Russia how to apply human rights, Steiner-te said: "Nobody here teaches how to act, but explains generally accepted standards.

"Because human rights are not what you or I do, but what our state does."

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