CEREES: Political prisoners in Russia & the Occupied Territories of Ukraine

Venue: Montagu Lecture Theatre, Graduate Centre (GC601), Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road London E1 4NS

Russia’s prisons are the unseen side of Russia’s repression of dissent and opposition. This event includes UK experts on the Russian legal and penal system (Profs Judith Pallott, Helsinki; and Bill Bowring, Birkbeck), alongside campaigners for prisoners’ rights in Russia (Sergei Davidis, Memorial), and in the territories of Ukraine, temporarily occupied by Russia (Yevgeniy Zakharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group).

Prof Judith Pallot is the research lead for “Gulag Echoes,” a 5 year project funded by the European Research Council and conducted at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. The project’s aim is to examine the impact of the system of penality developed in the Soviet gulag on the ethnic identification, social relationships and political association of prisoners in the Soviet Union and the communist successor states. The proposition underpinning the research is that prisons are sites of ethnic and racial identity construction, but that the processes involved vary within and between states, and through time.

Prof Bill Bowring is a practising barrister and Professor of Law at Birkbeck, where he teaches international law and human rights. He is Chair of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights; is President of the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH); is active in the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales; and is a Trustee of the Redress Trust, and of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR). Bill is presently writing several articles and book chapters on Russia, minority and language rights; the relationship between the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights; and the Eurasian Economic Union.

Sergei Davidis is Head of Political Prisoners Support Program and Member of the Council at the Memorial Human Rights Center. He was educated in Sociology at Moscow State University and on Law at Moscow State Law Academy. For many years, he was a participant and one of the organizers of the democratic opposition movement. His research interests are closely related to activities to support political prisoners in Russia, and he studies the sociological and legal aspects of politically motivated deprivation of liberty, in particular, in the context of world practice and international norms.

Yevhen Zakharov is a human rights defender, journalist, and editor-publisher. He is board chair of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. For his work in civil rights, he has been awarded the Order of Liberty (2008) and the Order for Intellectual Courage (2006), the Vasyl Stus Prize (2012), and the Lev Kopelev Prize (2015).

Welcome, by Andy Willimott & Jeremy Hicks (QMUL) – 18:00

Panel Discussion – 18:05

Discussion, chaired by Natalya Chernyshova (QMUL) – 18:50

Drinks reception, meet the speaker – 19:10

Host or Publisher School of History, Queen Mary