Linked with our presentation of Ella-Maria Polyakova – Russian Federation.
Its Goal: to provide practical assistance to recruits, soldiers and their families in protecting their legal rights.Information and legal help to recruits and their parents.
Presentation: “Soldier’s Mothers of Saint-Petersburg” is human rights and non-governmental organization protecting the rights of the conscripts, soldiers of the active army and their families. The situation in the russian army is serious and important problem which is symbolizes the state of affairs in modern Russia. Our organization is engaged in educational and legal work. We teach to protect the right to the life, to the health and to the self-respect by themselves. The mission of the organization is formation of the legal culture, relations governed by law. But first of all it is alteration of the human mind, as only people having the new recognition, could make Russia the democratic state.
The NGO is member of Pax Christi International.
The „Civil Rights Organisation Soldatskiye Matieri Sankt-Pietierburga / in english Soldiers’ Mothers of St. Petersburg“, founded in 1991, has been awarded the Aachen Peace Award 2004 for its courageous actions and efforts for more than 100,000 Russian conscientious objectors and deserters, as well as for its resistance against the dirty war in Chechnya.
The organisation of St. Petersburg has so far provided legal advice to more than 150,000 individuals. Thanks to the aid provided by the organisation, more than 100,000 conscripts were able to assert their legally chartered right not to do any military service, and thanks to the support provided by the organisation, more than 5,000 deserters were prematurely dismissed from the army.
The organisation’s work gains its importance primarily before the background of countless human rights violations to be recorded in the Russian armed forces. About 1,000 individuals are seeking legal advice each month with the Soldiers’ Mothers of St. Petersburg: Relatives, conscripts as well as individuals doing military service who left their units because they felt unable to stand the torments any longer. In 2002 alone, no less than 6,000 soldiers deserted. (Read more on Aachen Peace Award).
Currently, Soldiers’ Mothers is focusing on:
1. Continuation of our Civil Society Programme (teaching human rights in schools, conducting seminars and training sessions enhancing people’s self-confidence and belief in their own capabilities);
2. Publicize observations, findings, and research;
3. Developing our website;
4. Pressure group on Russian government to end conscription;
5. Monitoring human rights violations in barracks;
6. Maintaining a database on service men and building a database for conscripts;
7. Publishing findings of sociological research (The Army and I: a sociological analysis of militarization in Russian society);
8. Creating more openness in society and abandoning old taboos through greater mobility of information and peace education as well as training sessions in non-violent conflict resolution.
(Read more on this page of PAX CHRISTI International).
links:
an NGO presentation;