With the support of the Eu-Russia Civil Society Forum Antigone and the Russian Ngo Man and Law developed the project “Rights in prison. EU-Russia Civil Society Forum and the defence of fundamental rights in the penitentiary system”.
On 6-8 July 2016, a working meeting of the team took place in Rome, Italy. Apart from the project partners - Alessio Scandurra from the "Antigone" Association (Rome) and Irina Protasova from the NGO "Man and Law" (Yoshkar-Ola), the events gathered representatives of the civilian oversight commissions from the Republic of Mari-Eland the Tomsk Region and the "For Civil Rights" Committee (Russia) as well as NGOs "A Buon Diritto" and "Forum Droghe" (Italy), and others.
On 6 July 2016, the Open Event "Civil Society in Russia and Italy. Share of Experiences and Cooperation Opportunities" was held.
Later on an Italian delegation travelled to Russia, but this time not everything went as planned. The representatives of three Italian human rights organisations - Antigone, Arcigay and A Buon Diritto - that were visiting the offices of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Nizhny Novgorod were detained by police for 10 hours and each fined 2,000 roubles for allegedly violating migration rules before being released. After the release the Italian embassy recommended the member of the Italian delegation to travel back to Italy as soon as possible.
Despite this small accident, cooperation among Russian and Italian partners has continued, and we hope it will continue for a long time. Together we have produced a small publication to show to people in Europe that are committed to protecting the fundamental rights of inmates, how the European Court of Human Rights Court can be an important tool for the protection and advancement of rights in prison.
Here you can find the publication in English
Here you can find the publication in Russian
Lastly we have built together a database of civil society organizations engaged in the protection of fundamental rights in prison in Russia and Europe, in order to facilitate exchanges and cooperation as valuable as this one has been for us.
Irina Protasova (Man and Law)
Alessio Scandurra (Antigone)