2020-21 Programme

Protection of Victims’ Rights

FULL PROGRAMME REPORT

Assistance to Victims of Crime

Implemented jointly with the Legal Training Centre (St Petersburg, Russia), with the support of Solicitors International Human Rights Group.

In the year 2020/21, the programme was delivered in an unusual format. Due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, we had to drop an introductory workshop in St Petersburg and a study visit to the UK, replacing these elements with a series of pre-recorded video talks. However, the distance mode had its advantages as a larger number of Russian lawyers from many regions had a chance to sign up for the course: in total, 160 practising lawyers and law students from 40 Russian cities took part.

Video Course

18 December 2020 – 1 February 2021

In total, eight talks were recorded and posted on the CWI YouTube Channel. Russian subtitles were added to the presentations in English.

These videos can be accessed below.

Speaker Presentations

The Russian experts focused their talks on three categories of cases. The victims in these cases find themselves in completely different situations but all suffer from stress, uncertainty and unpredictability, in addition to habitual neglect and lack of systemic support in Russia.

Elena Topilskaya, formerly a senior investigator at St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office and now a defence lawyer at St. Petersburg Bar Association, spoke about representing victims of medical malpractice entailing grave consequences. In recent years, investigation of iatrogenic crimes in Russia has been in the limelight, yet victims remain in the shade. They need qualified legal assistance, primarily as they need to deal with the most complicated evidence: medical documents and expert opinions. Lawyers can help by sharpening their own professional skills in this area and by prompting other legal professionals to do the same, thus raising the general standard of justice in this type of cases. 

Alexander Brester, advisor and head of strategic projects at Khoroshev & Partners, spoke about the protection of victims of unlawful violence by law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, it is still a serious issue in Russia. People tortured in police custody, pre-trial detention centres and prisons are extremely limited in their capacity to protect their rights. In itself, initiating a criminal case and obtaining the status of a victim is very problematic for them. The trainer particularly talked about civil liability of the state for torture and ill-treatment of persons in custody and the use of international protection tools, such as applications to the European Court of Human Rights.

Anna Sungurova, a defence lawyer at the St Petersburg Bar Association ‘Smolina, Malkin and Partners’, presented her recommendations for legal assistance to victims of road accidents. On the face of it, it seems that these are standard cases where all lawyers feel confident and victims should easily receive fair compensation. However, even in this area victims often need serious and elaborate legal assistance. Judicial practice is changing; the approaches of insurance companies are changing; new complex legal and economic schemes are introduced, such as for example ride-hailing services; new technologies for documenting traffic violations are developed. The size of compensation for victims is always an issue in this area of practice.

The brilliant British experts spoke about the system of victim protection in England and Wales. In their video presentations, they spoke about the history of victim support, the positive and negative developments in the criminal justice system, and the current issues that need to be resolved. The experts shared their comments on the ongoing changes from the point of view of their own professional experience.

Presentation of the UK experience always provokes conflicting reactions in the audience, from “What great ideas! (norms, schemes, procedures, practices)” to “It is impossible for us! (they have different traditions, culture, professional background, resources, etc)”. Of course, when discussing protection of victims’ rights, we do not assume borrowing or directly transferring institutions, practices or codes, e.g. the Victim Code. The programme did not aim to conduct an academic comparative research. Communicating with the English colleagues, even in a virtual format, the Russian participants were able to note the values, approaches and attitudes shared by practitioners working in different environments, from judges to volunteers, and to see how various agencies and professionals cooperate with each other. It was also important to find out that the well-established English justice system is able to change and test new approaches.

Following the video talks, the trainees had an opportunity to email questions to the experts and receive their answers and comments. Many participants took advantage of this opportunity.

Home Assignments

1-15 February 2021

The trainees were asked to choose one of the suggested topics:

1) Analysis of a successful case where they provided legal assistance to a victim of crime;
2) Overview of the regional practice of legal assistance to victims, focused on a specific type of crime;
3) Concept of a draft law on victim support.

The papers were assessed by the Russian trainers. Comments by Russian experts were sent to the trainees individually by email.

Publications

Four original publications were prepared specifically for the purposes of the Project:

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Assisting Victims of Crime: Experience of England and Wales by Florentine Röell (in Russian translation)

Guidelines for Legal Assistance to Victims of Torture and Violence Inflicted by Law Enforcement Agencies by Alexander Brester

Representing Victims of Medical Malpractice by Elena Topilskaya

Guidelines for Representing Victims of Road Traffic Accidents by Anna Sungurova

All teaching materials are made available on this website, and on the website of the Legal Training Centre, for further dissemination and use by Russian lawyers across the country.