#5 - JRL 7250
HEAD OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION UNDER AUSPICES OF THE PRESIDENT CALLS UPON ALL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS OF RUSSIA TO POOL THEIR EFFORTS

MOSCOW, July 15, 2003. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Nikolai Makarov/ -- All human rights organisations of the country must pool their efforts in order to protect more efficiently the rights of the Russians. The chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, spoke about it on Tuesday at the All-Russia Conference of the Heads of the Human Rights Commissions in the subjects of the Federation.

The conference is also attended by representatives of the presidential administration, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice, by commissioner for human rights in the Russian Federation Oleg Mironov and also by representatives of a number of human rights organisations.

Ella Pamfilova said that the commission, which she heads, had drafted a package of amendments to the Law on Citizenship, which will be submitted to the State Duma for consideration this autumn. Apart from that, the Commission is working over the package of laws on the legal position of foreigners, the protection of the rights of children, and also, on the instructions of the President, on the proposals about ecological supervision.

The head of the Commission also spoke in favour of setting up human rights councils in the federal districts.

In her opinion, all human rights organisations in the country are called

upon, on the one hand, "to contribute to the development of a civil society in Russia and, on the other, to exert influence on the formation of the authority."