The World Today and Human Rights in the Future

Key conclusions

Human rights need to be protected even without a unified system

“Can the lack of a unified model justify human rights violations? [...] No, it cannot justify human rights violations. […] It seems to me that until the legislative, executive, and law enforcement authorities in general do more than just remember, until they actually start to respect Article 18 of the Constitution [The rights and liberties of man and citizen shall have direct effect. They shall determine the meaning, content and application of the laws, and the activities of the legislative and executive branches and local self-government, and shall be secured by the judiciary – Ed.], no matter how much we talk about things here, there will be no improvement to human rights in the future,” Tatiana Andreeva, Associate Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Retired Deputy Chair of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation.

“The idea that the social tradition that probably took shape primarily during Soviet times may hearken back to an earlier period in Russian history still exists. No matter how much is said about the adoption of a Western concept of human rights in Russia, [...] it’s not true. The social reality is more like a different view of individual rights and the relationship between individual rights and society, individual rights and the interests of the state,” Sergey Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg State University.

PROBLEMS

Developing alternative concepts of globalization

“In the future [...] there won’t be any globalization in the sense of a single unified concept of what’s right and proper. Each person’s beautiful future must correspond to what they consider to be a beautiful future in accordance with the notion of what is right, proper, and beautiful. In this respect, we are now witnessing a process that can already be called a kind of de-globalization, the end of globalization. I think the future lies in the development of alternative concepts. They have yet to be developed, to be articulated. Despite the existence of international documents, [...] no concept has been fully elaborated, thought-out, detailed, formulated, embodied legally, and reflected in studies of a more global philosophical nature. But obviously it will be,” Sergey Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg State University.

“There is no established Eurasian legal consciousness. Eurasian law is not perceived as a natural legal reality, for that is what it is in those areas that have been transferred to the national level. In this situation, the legal division between national and Eurasian law shouldn’t exist as a matter of principle. […] These issues need to be addressed, with the national courts playing a key role here, in cooperation with the court of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as the relevant executive authorities and the Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the commissions. We are ready to do this work; we consider it advisable to create specialised dialogue platforms for this purpose and invite all interested colleagues to join in the work,” Vladimir Kovalev, Advisor of Secretariat of the Chairman of the Board, Eurasian Economic Commission.

“A specific approach to human rights is gradually taking shape. The approach has yet to be conceptualised, and no one has articulated what it consists of. The proposal to think about the creation of a CIS human rights convention is more about form than content. What exactly should be written into the convention? [...] No Asian standard has yet to be formulated as such, and anyway would an Asian standard suit the Russian concept of human rights? These are the questions I was asking myself when I was trying to analyse, understand, and articulate how the perception of human rights in our country differs from that of other countries,” Sergey Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg State University.

SOLUTIONS

Creating hybrid systems

“If we work on this project to create a CIS human rights court, [...] [we’ll need] to take a synthetic approach to the reproduction and reception of all the humanist ideas that have accumulated in the memory of humanity – that would be the most productive way to approach it. I don’t think we should get carried away with comparing West and East. We live in a global, indivisible world. New dividing lines are fraught with a clash of civilisations, so it would be far more sensible and realistic to strive for a combination of European and regional systems, of universal and national values,” Vladimir Kovalev, Advisor of Secretariat of the Chairman of the Board, Eurasian Economic Commission.

“The Western model continues to play an important role. The most important accomplishment has been the development of a judicial methodology for dealing with human rights, though maybe today, in the light of new developments, we can look at the experience we’ve already got and come to a new understanding of it,” Tatiana Vasilieva, Chief Scientist of the Human Rights Sector, Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

For more, see the ROSCONGRESS.ORG Information and Analytical System.

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