VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL NORMS AND THE RUSSIAN LEGISLATION ON THE RIGHTS OF REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRANTS

PREFACE

Over the year and a half of the work on the Program «Organization of Legal Advice Centers in Russia for Refugees and Forced Migrants», «Memorial» Human Rights Center opened 22 such centers within the framework of two projects supported by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the democratic program of TACIS Foundation. Our target is to make free legal advice accessible to each migrant.

In 1997, lawyers in the regions provided legal advice to more than 3,000 refugees and forced migrants. Over 400 lawsuits, complaints and other applications was filed. Lawyers acted on behalf of refugees and forced migrants in one hundred court trials. A procedure for effective protection of forced migrants who were refused registration at the place of residence in the housing owned by them has been established.

For the lawyers working on the program, regular training seminars are held. Their materials are published as collections. Apart from reports and presentations, such collections include laws, RF Government resolutions, and other relevant documents. The demand for the collections based on the first two seminars demonstrates their usefulness.

The first seminars were held in December 1996 and April 1997. There appeared two collections, Provision of Legal Advice for Refugees and Forced Migrants in Russian Towns and Regions (Moscow, Zvenya Publishers, 1997), and Dealing with the Problems of Refugees and Forced Migrants through the Legislative, Judicial and Administrative Systems (Moscow, Zvenya Publishers, 1997).

On November 27-28, 1997, the third seminar was held. Its subject was «Violation of International Rules and Regulations and the Russian Laws Pertaining to the Rights of Refugees and Forced Migrants». The seminar had more than 50 participants from 21 regions of Russia.

A great deal of interest was aroused by the presentations of Russian lawyers who managed to carry through to a successful conclusion the cases of refugees and forced migrants, specifically ones on according status to third-world emigres. Kh.B. Sheinin, head of the Department for the Citizens’ Constitutional Rights and Freedoms at the RF Constitutional Court, Professor V.V. Yershov and S.A. Pashin, judge of the Moscow City Court, discussed concrete cases of settlement in and out of court.

In our view, not only the presentations were made at a higher professional level than at the first two seminars thanks to our having invited leading Russian lawyers, but the level of the participants’ legal awareness and competence also rose.

To make this collection autonomous from the first two, it contains some of the supplements included in the first collection.

We hope it will be of use to everyone who is providing legal advice to forced migrants in Russia.

Scheduled for April 1998 is a seminar on the subject «Opportunities for the Use of International Judicial Mechanisms for the Protection of the Rights of Refugees and Forced Migrants».

Svetlana Gannushkina,
Program director