The right of citizens for judicial defence and its enforcement discussed in Volgograd

The Volgograd human rights NGOs, with support of M. A. Tarantsov, Ombudsman for the Volgograd Region, held a round table "On Enforcement of Citizens' Right for Judicial Defence in the Volgograd Region." The participants were S. A. Gannushkina, member of the Board under the President of the Russian Federation for Promotion of Development of Civil Society Institutes and Human Rights, representatives of different power branches of Volgograd and Volgograd Region, law-enforcement agencies and academia.

The participants of the discussion have stated the general concern of the fact that, despite the judicial reform undertaken in the country, the level of trust among ordinary citizens to the courts remains extremely low. Among the painful topics the speakers noted judicial red tape and the problems of enforcing the enacted judicial decisions.

A lot has been said about regular violations of the rights of litigating parties and non-observance by the judges of their professional ethical code, which puts the independence of the courts under doubt. Thus, it is habitual for the judges, prior to a start of judicial session, to receive one party of the process in their offices in the eyes of the other party.

By the outcomes of the roundtable, a resolution with a range of particular proposals was adopted and sent to the leaders of the country, Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, Chairs of the RF Supreme Court and Volgograd Regional Court.