16. Human Rights

Human rights are "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to be treated with respect and dignity, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education in some countries.

These human rights are recognized in most countries around the world. However, generally speaking, people enjoy more rights in the democratic states.

Amnesty International(1961, in London) (commonly known as Amnesty and AI) is an international secular non-governmental organization which defines its mission as "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses (зл-й) of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."

The activity of the Amnesty International is wide-spread and touches RF and the former SR. During SR in the period of administrative command system the government has the total control over all spheres of people’s life; this total control breached people’s laws and rights, that’s why the Amnesty International studied the problem atmosphere in our country.

Amnesty International is one of the most well known human rights organizations, it conducts research all over the world and has even received a Nobel Peace Prize for its "campaign against torture". One of the main issues of the AI in the former Soviet States is the abolition of death penalty (отмена смертной казни). At the moment there are only 2 republics that still carry out death sentences, others either abandoned it as a form of punishment completely, or declared a moratorium (as did RF for instance). Another concern of the AI in Eastern Europe is torture (пытки) (for the most part that applies prisons). And obviously, there are violations(нарушение) of the freedom of speech of journalists, lawyers.

Now in our country the situation is also lives much to be desired, in spite of the fact that the political system changed for good, in my opinion. The democratic system gives many right and laws, but there are obviously some infringements(нарушение) upon human rights in this society. However, human rights are violated all over the world one way or another, and our society is not the worst case by far. I, personally, feel quite comfortable living in Russia at the moment, though would still welcome some improvement in terms of human rights. Mainly concerning the “equality before the law”.

As for our institute: I know that in many large institutes there are student organizations that deal with breaking students laws. Our institute is too young for such organization but may be with some time. I’m sure that if the students right will break we have the possibility to apply to our Deans office where all our problems will be solved honestly and objectively.