Translated material
For the warmth of relationships
Human rights activists want to be friends with the authorities against energy workers
Chief Russian human rights activist Oleg Mironov called for developing a new concept of work and finding a common language with the authorities at a round table of human rights commissioners held over the weekend in Smolensk. Human rights activists in Russia, the CIS and neighboring countries have come to the conclusion that only an alliance with the authorities will allow them to participate in legislative activities and thus fight injustice. “We should not only take a neutral position and state the facts of human rights violations, but together with the authorities move forward to prevent violations,” Mr. Mironov said.Apparently, the coordination council of commissioners, which was specially established at the forum of ombudsmen, will have to establish closer contacts.
In addition to organizational issues, the commissioners also discussed the main violations of rights and freedoms that they have encountered recently. According to most regional ombudsmen, cases of power outages in residential buildings and hospitals have recently taken first place among complaints and appeals. “On the eve of a new winter, when the events of last year and especially the crisis in Primorye have not yet been forgotten, human rights activists are forced to pay more attention to energy problems,” Nikolai Belousov, chief specialist of the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Smolensk Region, told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper. “Because it is power outages and interruptions in heat supply that give rise to massive violations of human rights on the scale of entire regions and cities.”