Topical issues of international law discussed in Moscow

Today Moscow is hosting the international round table 'Topical international legal problems of the XXI century'.It was organized by the State Duma and the Foreign Ministry with the participation of Institute of Europe of the RAS, the A.M. Gorchakov Fund for Support of Public Diplomacy, the Kutafin Moscow State Law University and the Russian Historical Society. The meeting will be attended by parliamentarians, jurists, experts, human rights activists and government officials from more than 20 countries (including Germany, Georgia, Italy, Canada, the US, Turkey, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and the CIS countries).

The Chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, opened the round table with a speech in which he stressed the alarming trend of Western countries imposing 'legislation of immoral practices as questionable standards' to other states. "Instead of achieving commitments from Kiev, the West imposes requirements on Russia, which couldn't be included in the Minsk Agreements, because Russia has the same function as France or Germany," Naryshkin said.

The State Duma Speaker expressed hope that an end to the current crisis is possible. "I mean the protection of civilians during armed conflicts, and the avoidance of prohibited forms of warfare, and other key humanitarian issues," he warned.

Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin focused in his speech on the issue of double standards in the application of human rights. "At one time the UN General Assembly decided to establish the Human Rights Council to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. The idea was noble: to conduct a periodic review of human rights in all countries to avoid politicization. However, it did not lead to the rejection of the selective and confrontational practice of the introduction of projects in resolutions on so-called 'undesirable states'," the diplomat reminded.

The leader of the Democratic Movement Party of Georgia, Nino Burjanadze, in her speech recalled the tragedy in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa on May 2, 2014, and noted that the perpetrators must be found and punished.

An international law expert from Canada, Christopher Boje, said that propaganda is very active both in Europe and in the United States, which devalues the work of the international court. "All tribunals are controlled by the western agencies. All prosecutors are controlled by Brussels and Washington," he said. Moreover, according to him, there are serious problems with human rights in the West.

The chairman of the Council of States of the Federal Parliament of Switzerland, Filippo Lombardi, assessed the current situation as quite hard, but not hopeless. He welcomes sanctions as a tool, but noted that they should be imposed by internationally recognized authority.

A German MP of the Left party for Aachen, Andrej Hunko, said that not all residents in Germany support the authorities' policy towards Russia. "Half of the people in Germany are critical of the Western approach to Russia. I am speaking on behalf of the Left party, which supports all efforts to normalize relations between Russia and the West," he said.