Human Rights in Russia week-ending 12 February 2021 - with Andrei Suslov

Simon and Sergei

This week our guest on the podcast is Andrei Borisovich Suslov, a professor at Perm State Humanitarian and Pedagogical University who has been involved in human rights education for more than 20 years. The topic of today’s podcast is ‘Human Rights Education in Russia: The Past, Present and Future’. The issues we discuss in the podcast include: the history of human rights education in post-Soviet Russia; what prompted Andrei Suslov to get involved in human rights education; Andrei Suslov’s work in this field; how things have changed over the last 20 years; the importance of human rights education; the role of human rights education in the development of democracy; how lawyers are trained in human rights law; young people and human rights; what should people know about human rights; what story or stories from the lives of real people are instructive in thinking about human rights; what should human rights education be like, ideally. The podcast is in the Russian language. You can also listen to the podcast on Rights in Russia (https://www.rightsinrussia.org/podcast-7/), SoundCloud, Spotify and iTunes. The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.

Sergei Nikitin writes on Facebook: In 2006 I received a letter from the deputy director of the Department of State Policy and Legal Regulation of Education in the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. This was in response to our demand to teach human rights in Russian schools. “The importance of studying human rights,” I.M.Remorenko wrote, “raises no doubts.” Then came a lot of verbiage about how human rights help cultivate citizenship and patriotism, while at the end of his address the official explained that domestic legislation is amended so frequently that there is no sense in introducing a human rights course in schools, all the more so since any citizen acquires knowledge of human rights throughout his life. So why bother? In 2007 the Minister of Education said that, OK, human rights would be taught at school as a separate course, but – no such luck. For this reason I have always admired the tireless work of enthusiastic educators who work to ensure that schoolchildren and teachers learn about human rights as the protection of each person’s dignity and freedom, their personal, political, social, economic and cultural rights. Simon Cosgrove and I recently spoke with Andrei Suslov, a professor at Perm State Humanitarian Pedagogical University, who has been teaching human rights for over 20 years. The hour flew by and we could have talked much more. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did: our interviewee Andrei Suslov, one of the leading experts on human rights education.

Simon Cosgrove adds: If you want to listen to this podcast on the podcasts.com website and it doesn’t seem to play, please download by clicking on the three dots to the right. A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.