Krasnodar holds seminar "Public Control: Power and Society"

In Krasnodar, Moscow and local human rights activists have discussed, in the course of the seminar "Public Control: Power and Society", organized by the Moscow "Demos" Centre, the civil supervision over the activities of law enforcement bodies. The role of experts was performed by members of human rights public organizations, advocates and journalists from Kuban.

The "Novaya Gazeta" writes that the Demos" Centre has presented a review of research results, where functions of civil supervision were defined. This means active interference of citizens into legislature that is carried out by the authorities, informing the society about decisions made, and citizens' actively perceived control over the quality of bureaucrats' work in localities.

The seminar participants have concluded that Russia has very weak civil supervision, the members of civil society are not admitted to law-making, and Russian authorities fail to properly inform the population about their actions. Process of taking the United State Exam (USE) is given as an example. Schoolboys with limited physical abilities are in fact unable to pass the exam, since the law does not allow them to be accompanied by other persons, and, as a matter of fact, forbids asthmatic patients to take their drugs with them.

The similar situation is with birth certificates: the authorities have made an important decision, but millions of Russian pregnant women fail to understand this decision so far.

At the same time, a number of positive points were noted. In the Krasnodar territory, during the recent years, the law-enforcement system, in view of all its minuses, has become more transparent for the press.

As to the "Demos" Centre, sociologists Asmik Novikov and Olga Shepeleva have emphasized that the institute of civil control over militia activities in our country is still absent. In their opinion, the militia would not wish to recognize its obligations before ordinary citizens.

The study, carried out by the "Demos" Centre, is called up to solve these problems, and in dissemination of results thereof human rights activists rely on journalists.