Available in Russian
Author: Rustam Khalafyan
DOI: 10.21128/2226-2059-2024-2-119-141
Keywords: USSR; Russia; human rights; United Nations; Helsinki Process; Council of Europe; post-Soviet area
Enforcement of human rights through international bodies is an essential component of the modern human rights architecture. However, the recognition of human rights as a subject of international concern does not exclude the responsibilities for the interests of the individual by national authorities, whose approaches in this area are unique and could undergo some changes. The article uses a series of methods to demonstrate the evolution of ideas in the USSR and Russia on international human rights protection. The study found that the official position is correlated with the current situation, often a turning point for the country, and is not mainly conditioned by the desire to create prerequisites for the protection of an individual. Despite all upheavals, the United Nations human rights enforcement mechanisms are welcomed with greater support than cooperation at the regional level. International procedures of a political character (the U.N. Commission on Human Rights/U.N. Human Rights Council and the CSCE/OSCE) are less effective because they do not require specific response measures, compared with similar legal ones (the U.N. Human Rights Treaty Bodies and the ECtHR). Russia’s initiatives to establish an international body for the protection of human rights in the post-Soviet area are in the process of formation. Against the general backdrop, in the last decade there has been a rejection of the broad implementation of international standards provided for by the Russian Federation Constitution of 1993. Although the Constitution contains prerequisites for effective protection of the individual, their effect is blocked by both the interpretation of constitutional norms and domestic practice. The situation raises questions of its compliance with international law, as evidenced by the materials of international bodies. As a result, it is possible to observe features of similarities between the Soviet and Russian approaches to the comprehension of human rights, which sharply contrasts with certain progress made in this area in the long post-Soviet period. In the meantime, attempts to enunciate a special view of their interpretation need a more detailed foundation.
About the author: Rustam Khalafyan – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Associate Professor in International Law Department, Ural State Law University (USLU) named after V. F. Yakovlev; Researcher in the Laboratory for International and Comparative Legal Studies at the Tyumen State University, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Citation: Khalafyan R. (2024) Uchastie SSSR i Rossii v mezhdunarodnykh mekhanizmakh zashchity prav cheloveka: novyy put' ili povtorenie predydushchego? [USSR and Russian Federation participation in international mechanisms for the protection of human rights: a new path or a repeat of the previous one?]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 119–141. (In Russian).
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