Human Rights in Russia and the Upcoming G-8 Summit

Event

CSIS's Russia and Eurasia Program and RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty hosted two of Russia's most powerful voices on human rights. Yuri Dzhibladze, president of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, and Tanya Lokshina, chair of the Moscow-based think tank Demos, spoke about the human rights situation in Russia ahead of the July 2006 G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg. They discussed:

What would they like the G-7 leaders to discuss with President Putin?

What message would they like delivered?

What meetings are they organizing in Russia ahead of the G-8 meetings?

Sarah Mendelson moderated the event.

Panelists

Yuri Dzhibladze is founder and president of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, a Russian public policy and advocacy NGO. He is a specialist in human rights, international law, and civil society, and an active member of Russian and international NGO community. He currently is a member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy, NGO Process for the Community of Democracies, Citizens Against Terror, and several other international and national NGO networks. Dzhibladze has been active in social movements since the mid-1980s. In 1998 he founded and became president of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights. The center’s work focuses on public policy research, legislative work, protection of NGOs from persecution, NGO legislation, application of international human rights instruments, combating racism and xenophobia, development of alternative civil service for conscientious objectors to the military draft, and advocacy campaigns on human rights. Dzhibladze has written many articles in Russian and foreign publications and has edited several books. He is a member of the Expert Council of the Ombudsman for Human Rights of the Russian Federation.

Tanya Lokshina is chair of the Moscow-based think tank Demos and a researcher with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. She has been engaged professionally with the human rights crisis in the Chechen Republic since 2003. In 2003 she ran a special monitoring effort on the political situation in Chechnya that served as the basis for a book combining information about human rights violations and faulty election practices with a series of reader-friendly stories. The book Chechnya 2003: Political Process through the Looking Glass received acclaim in Russia and Europe. Since 2003, Lokshina has undertaken more than a dozen field missions, drafted several human rights reports, and published a series of articles on the human rights situation in and around Chechnya on the Russian political news site Polit.Ru, as well as produced analytical materials on the Chechen crisis in Russian and Western magazines. Lokshina testifies frequently on Chechnya before the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the OSCE, and the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

Related Materials:

Interview with Tatyana Lokshina, conducted by Julie Corwin, RFE/RL. May 28, 2006.