Most important projects of Interlegal in last two years

1. Protecting the initial NGO Law of 1995 – against the amendments adopted in 2006
Among the turbulent events of the end of 2005 – one of the most important one is our work against amendments had been introduced to the

NGO Law of Russian Federation of 1995, (Interlegal had been a primary drafter of the Law of 1995, so we were very proud that the support to our initial text of NGO Law had united not only most active NGO’s within the country, but also all around the World)

It is hard to list all the expert meetings, round tables and press-conferences, that Interlegal specialists had participated, in order to prove, that those amendments are unnecessary, and moreover, harmful to civil society development in Russia.

We had written and published numerous texts, proving, that with those amendments NGO legislation in Russia becomes unbalanced a d the state authorities are gaining restrictive powers and intruding into the freedom of NGOs.

As Interlegal was not alone in this work, it resulted in formation of an alliance of several NGO expert networks, that provide legal aid to NGOs in Russia, which signed an Agreement to work together for this common goal. Interlegal and “We, the citizens!” Coalition are the part of this alliance. One of the very important results of this joint work – was a joint report “On the results of the monitoring of the implementation of the new NGO legislation” and the harms, that it had brought to local NGOs. This report was presented by Russian NGO leaders at the meeting on INGO Conference in Strasbourg (April, 2007).

Currently, this work continues and Interlegal plans to bring the message of the European principles in regulating NGOs further around Russian Federation – through its network of “We, the citizens!” NGO coalition.

We are currently involved in the organizing the visit of CoE delegation – with the participation of the INGO Conference – to the Republic of Buryatia, planned to be held 28-31 in Ulan-Ude and o the Lake Baikal, - to discuss the European Standards of NGO status and the practice in Russian Federation – as a case of Buryatia

2. Working on the European Guidelines on Freedom of Assembly with OSCE/ODIHR
Another important international activity of the Interlegal in the recent years was the work for the European Guidelines on Freedom of Assembly, organized and sponsored by the OSCE/ODIHR.
Because of its reputation as an expert organization in the issues of international and comparative legislation on NGOs and their activities, Interlegal was invited to take part in the international drafting group, which included expert organizations from Armenia, Tadjikistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, France, Great Britain and USA. Interlegal was representing expert NGOs from Russian Federation.

The work on the drafting included not only working with legal documents, but also a lot of visits to the different countries of Europe , Asia and Caucasus – with very different legislative systems. Those visits included personal meetings and presentations of legislators, police and public events organisors, followed by the intense discussions of the Panel members.

The events organized by the international OCSE/ODIHR experts and their respected organizations, including Interlegal Foundation in the countries of Europe – Poland, Serbia, Croatia, as well as Georgia and Kazakhstan during the year 2006-2007 has generated a great deal of interest in the Guidelines, which, in turn, resulted in lawmakers from different countries turning themselves to the ODIHR with requests for assistance on assembly related legislation.
Freedom of assembly is currently on the agenda of Legislative assemblies of Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, to name only a few. Our assistance was requested in respect of all three countries, and the Guidelines that are now being finalized and presented at the OSCE meeting in Vienna in march 2007 - have proved extremely useful in drafting our
comments and putting forward more specific and elaborated arguments
than those used in the past.

On the other hand, the interest in the guidelines shown by OSCE/ODIHR counterparts in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other countries have
resulted in higher expectations. ODIHR director, Ambassador Strohal, who
was recently in Azerbaijan has committed himself to come back to Baku to
present the final text of the guidelines, and we may have to consider
further activities or events to promote the guidelines in other places
where their use could prove much needed.

Furthermore, the feedback received in the aftermath of the last roundtable in Warsaw in December of 2006 shows that the issue of Freedom of Assemblies is also sensitive in so-called “developed democracies”- i.e. the countries, where public assemblies are routinely taking place and that there is also an interest in these countries in looking more closely into the variety of dilemmas and difficulties associated with the exercise of the freedom particularly in the light of heightened security concerns.

It is very important to notice that the first 2007 OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting which took place on 26 March in Vienna was totally devoted to the freedoms of Assembly, Expression and Association. Such a formal event, which brought together representatives and experts from the 56 OSCE participating States, was a unique opportunity to present, disseminate and promote the Guidelines, as well as gave Interlegal representative Nina Belyaeva – as co-author of the text – to speak at this meeting, addressing all of its participants, suggesting the future work on implementing the Guidelines, promoting the principles of Council of Europe of free expression and democratic governance.

To make this all possible – a lot of work was invested by the leaders of the participating organizations prior to the meetings in accumulating information on NGO practice participating in Assemblies and the examples of the legal regulations as well as implementation of those regulations in respected countries legal and political environment.

By such a collective work, it was ensured, that all the co-authors from the different organizations and different countries individually and collectively had taken ownership of the final product, and are now able to promote it further in their own organization’s name.

It has to be stated – as an example of Interlegal’s important contribution to this international work of legal experts, that we saw our role not only in criticizing current legal environment for NGOs and their participation in Public actions and executing their rights to Freedom of Assembly, but also by collecting and presenting the examples of good practices, because, they are also a part of the current reality.

We strongly believe, that one of the added values of the Guidelines is
to provide such examples – both to legislators, to public events organizers and to the police, therefore, providing them all with lessons we can offer from as many countries and jurisdictions as possible.

Another important thing, where Interlegal had contributed to the Guidelines significantly, using its in-country consultations with NGO lawyers – was the creation of Russian-English glossary of the international terms , concerning the Freedom of Assembly.
Interlegal had organized a meeting in Moscow where the draft Glossary was discussed and contributed more than 15 new terms from te legislation and practice, that needed to be included into the Glossary.

Now the Glossary had been published together with the Guidelines.
INTERLEGAL has initiated the Launching event of the Russian text of the Guidelines in Moscow, together with main co-authors and key officials of the OSCE/ODIHR, possibly, with the participation with Ella Pamfilova, head of the Presidential Council on Human Rights and Civil Society development.

We are currently working hard to make this event possible.