Russian-Belarusian Public Commission on Human Rights Created :: Charter'97 :: News

A public Russian-Belarusian commission by the President of Russian Federation’s Council for Assisting the Development of civil society institutions and human rights has been created. The commission is to work, inter alia, in the sphere of protection of human rights of Russian citizens in Belarus, and Belarusian citizens in Russia, to monitor human rights and freedom observation by authorities of Russia and Belarus, freedom of expression in mass media.

As “Novosti” news agency has been informed by the press center of the presidential Council for Assisting the Development of civil society institutes and human rights, member of the council Sergei Karaganov and coordinator of Belarusian pro-democracy movements’ relations with Russia general Valery Pavlov are elected co-chairmen of the commission.

From the Russian side the members of the commission are Russian Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, member of the Presidential Council for Assisting the Development of civil society institutes and human rights Vladimir Pozner, Human Rights Institute director Valentin Gefter, the head of the department of special projects of ORT TV channel Pavel Sheremet, author of the informational and analytical program “Zerkalo” Nikolay Svanidze and others.

From the Belarusian side the members of the commission are, in particular, the chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev, chief editor if the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” Svetlana Kalinkina, chairman of the Innovation Foundation of legal technologies Elena Tonkecheva.