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Send to friendConcerned about a tendency among the governmental agencies to resist democratic reforms, the Citizens’ Watch decided to use the tactic of collaboration to abridge the distance between the government and the public. The aim is to create awareness among the bureaucrats that the interests of the department can coincide with the interests of civil society and promote independence and accessibility. Citizens’ Watch does this by approaching government officials that they feel would be responsive to civic initiatives and involve them in projects that deal with civil issues. They also offer help to the official and his department to carry out his role more effectively. This tactics is used because it fits with the historical context in which they are working. Although Russia was formally a constitutional democracy, today it still carries traces of its former totalitarian regime. The Soviet Union was previously described as “The Iron Curtain” because of its closed society and efforts to block foreign influences. Soviet bureaucrats were isolated from outside influences and measured by the loyalty to the regime.
When starting a new project, Citizens’ Watch screens administrators at regional and federal levels. They review their public utterances and reactions to relevant events and inquire of people in their surrounding whether they consider the person responsive to civic initiatives in solving problems with NGOs such as their agency. Citizens’ Watch then approaches the official and offers to help him make his department more efficient. For example, in 1996 the new head of St. Petersburg migration department publicly criticized the immigration laws as being in conflict with international human rights norms. Citizens’ Watch approached him and offered its services. They provided him with translated versions of certain international documents after he complained at the lack of a Russian version. In 1997, they also recommended him for an internship at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, after which he returned with several ideas of how to reform his department to take a more civilized and humane approach to migration problems.
Primary agencies that are targeted are the judicial system and the police force. Since the Russian judges under the Soviet regime often lacked independence and the police force is regularly accused of gross human rights violations, the agencies are particularly in need of reform to bring about change in civil society. Citizens’ Watch aimed to introduce a new system of education and training of future police officers, and approached police officials receptive to the idea within the Ministry of Interior. Seminars on human rights have subsequently been given to police officers and a training kit provided by the Council of Europe containing brochures and a videocassette on the police and human rights have been sent to police educational centers across Russia. To promote independence and integrity in the judicial system, Citizens’ Watch has provided conferences and seminars on how to observe international human rights standards in the courtrooms and how to make the rulings more accessible to the public. Russian judges at all levels have participated in the seminars and one of the results is that the rulings of the military courts have been made available on the Internet as of April 2001.
Citizens’ Watch has also been helping the efforts of its regular partner, Soldier’s Mothers NGO, to make Russian army more civilized, to eradicate cruel treatment of citizens in uniform.
By approaching government officials in a variety of fields and supporting them in their efforts to reform their departments, it helps strengthening the civil society and creates a more stable relationship between the government agencies and the community. It creates an awareness of basic human rights with the officials, which in turn provides a more effective protection for the citizens. Citizens’ Watch approaches agencies that are essential in the process of building a better foundation for a democracy, and connects the officials to the process on a personal basis. The changes therefore come through both external and internal influences and build public trust in the independence and integrity of the government agencies.
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