About the Fund
Not-for-profit organization
Fund "Ernest Ametistov Human Rights Center"
(Theory and Practice)
119435 Moscow POB 662
Tel/Fax: (095) 202-2238
E-mail: fond@ametistov.ru
We will be glad to receive your letters and phone calls. Please send us your questions, comments and proposals concerning the activities of the Fund and your participation in its educational programs. However, we would like to remind you, that the Fund does not provide legal advice neither does it take part in court proceedings.
The Fund is named after Ernest Mikhailovich Ametistov, a Justice of the Russian Federation Constitutional Court. A grave illness interrupted the life of this remarkable, energetic and cheerful person. His friends and colleagues were shocked by his sudden and early departure. The idea of founding an Ametistov Fund took shape on the 40th day following his death. It first came to William Keller, editor-in-chief of the New York Times newspaper and Judy Ingram, a Moscow correspondent of Associated Press. William Keller, a well-known journalist and a Pulitzer Prize winner, first met the Ametistovs in the early 1990s when he was the head of the Moscow bureau of New York Times. As we all remember, that was a "hot" time in Moscow and William came to Ernest to discuss and analyze the events that were unfolding at the time.
Judy Ingram came to know Ernest and his wife Olga still earlier, in the late 1980s, when she first arrived in Moscow as a university graduate student specializing in journalism. They've remained friends since then. Judy has the extraordinary quality of appearing there where she is most needed, and has a subtle perception of life, which helps her come up with precise and non-standard solutions in difficult situations.
The idea of establishing Ametistov Fund was also supported by Mary Holland, a lawyer from the United States, who frequently came to Moscow as the representative of the Lawyers Committee Human Rights Protection, a volunteer organization. She and Ernest Ametistov had worked together and later the two of them wrote a book entitled "Through Each Other's Eyes" devoted to the US and Russian judicial systems.
In November 1998, at the home of the Ametistovs, Judy Ingram, Mary Holland and Karinna Moskalenko, a Russian lawyer and head of the International Amnesty Support Center, together with Olga Zimenkova-Ametistova formulated the goals and tasks of the Fund: mass youth education in the sphere of basic human rights and freedoms; and training of liberal arts students and graduate students in the same field.
It only took three months to implement this idea! In February 1999, the first lectures had begun. Everything was done during an incredibly short period of time for such a project. Such a breakthrough would have been impossible without the efforts of those who knew and loved Ernest.
Evgeny Ametistov, Ernest's cousin and rector of the Moscow Energy Institute (MEA), immediately accepted the idea of organizing the Fund and had provided it with space at the institute. That is where the one year-and-a-half course of lectures was read and seminars were held for the students of the Fund. Together with Olga Zimenkova-Ametistova, MEA is a co-founder of the Ametistov Fund.
During a whole academic year a team of prominent lawyers, experts in human rights protection, lectured at the Fund on a voluntary basis. The first to respond to this idea was Vladimir Kartashkin, Chairman of the RF President Human Rights Commission, who had worked with Ernest Ametistov in the sphere of international law. He was followed by Tamara Morshchakova, Deputy Chairman of the RF Constitutional Court, an experienced lawyer and a brilliant orator. The Ametistovs had known her since the time of their work together at the Institute for the Legislation and Comparative Jurisprudence. This team was also joined by Mikhail Fedotov, Secretary of the RF Union of Journalists; Stanislav Chernichenko an university instructor in law with whom Ernest went to school; Anatoly Kononov, a Justice of the RF Constitutional Court; and other experts in the area of human rights.
Igor Yefimov, Ernest's university friend, helped find students, organize the teaching process and prepare the Fund's registration papers. Yuri Nekrasov, who inspired the other participants in this project with his belief in success, assisted him. Yuri is a journalist and a good friend of Ernest who had known him since 1953, when they both studied at the School of Law of Moscow State University.
Anna Cooper, chairwoman of the US Union for the Protection of Journalists, was in constant contact with the Fund, providing assistance as an experienced human rights defender.
In May 1999, the Fund was officially registered as a not-for-profit organization "Ernest Ametistov Human Rights Center".
The Fund's Council of Trustees consists of prominent and well-known figures. They all had known Ernest Ametistov, share his democratic views and approve of the Fund's goals and tasks. They include attorney Henry Reznik (they became acquainted in the early 1990s at the Democratic Perestroika Club which later gave start to almost all of Russia's political parties); B.A.Zolotukhin, member of the Political Council of Russia's Democratic Choice Movement, Attorney at Law Y.M.Schmidt, Liudmila Alexeyeva, President of the World Helsinki Federation, L.A.Ponomaryov, chairman of the National Regional Movement For Human Rights and others all of whom have devoted their lives to the protection of human rights.
On September 19, 2000, a new academic year has begun at the Ametistov Fund. Classes are held in collaboration with and at the premises of the Moscow State University School of Journalism on Mokhovaya Street. The student body consists of 40 people.
The Fund has entered the new millenium with a multitude of plans. We are trying to keep in step with the times and are currently developing a long-term WEB project, Terra legis. It utilizes modern technology that will allow people living both in large cities and in remote areas to have access to accurate and comprehensive information about their basic rights and freedoms.
The E.M. Ametistov Human Rights Protection Center began its work in February 1999. Its founders' main intention is to facilitate the formation in Russia of a true civil society by way of disseminating special juridical knowledge and experience in the area of international and constitutional protection of human rights. The center carries out research work in the area of human rights protection in Russia, and exchanges academic and practical experience with Russian and foreign organizations involved in rights protection.
The Ametistov Center is a non-commercial organization without membership. Its basic activity today is the organization of a course of lectures and practical work under the program of "International Human Rights Protection'' and "Constitutional Basics of Human Rights Protection''. Lectures are delivered by leading Russian and foreign experts: university teachers and practicing jurists -- Russian Constitutional Court justices and judges of general jurisdiction courts. Upon completing two semesters, the Center's students - students and graduate students specializing in juridical and non-juridical studies (political scientists, economists, sociologists and journalists) receive special certificates. The course is free of charge. During the first year the entire Center's work was carried out on a voluntary basis.
The graduation of the first course took place in December 1999 in the Andrei Sakharov Museum.
We express particular thanks to those who assist the Human Rights Protection Center: T.G. Morshchakova, deputy chair of the Russian Constitutional Court; Russian Constitutional Court justices G.A. Gadzhiyev, A.L. Kononov, O.I. Tiunov, O.S. Khokhryakova and G.S. Ebzeyev; V.A. Kartashkin, chairman of the RF President Commission for Human Rights; S.V. Chernichenko, director of the Center of International Law and Humanitarian Studies of the RF Foreign Ministry Diplomatic Academy; T.O. Ramishvili, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry Human Rights Protection Administration; N.B. Topornin, director of the European Council Information Center in Russia; M.A. Fedotov, secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists and director of the UNESCO Faculty; V. Roiter, UNESCO representative in Russia; K.A. Moskalenko, director of the Amnesty International Support Center and all the high professionals who delivered lectures for free.
In addition to their theoretical studies, the 26 students in the first year had had a chance to work in public human rights defense organizations: Memorial Society, Human Rights, a regional public organization, Hotline, the International Amnesty Support Center, the Glasnost Protection Fund, and the Moscow Helsinki Group. They also attended sessions of the Russian Federation Constitutional Court and in their classes discussed the decisions and resolutions passed by the Court. The Center's students also took part in the work of international conferences: The Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman (Russia) and International Human Rights Protection (Poland); the Stalker-99 human rights film festival; and round tables organized jointly with the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center.
At the end of their studies, the students prepared essays and articles, some of which were published in the collection of student papers of the International Independent Ecological-Political University and also in the newspaper of the all-Russian Human Rights Movement issued in March 2000. Starting from September 2000, lectures and theoretical training take place at the Lomonosov Moscow State University School of Journalism. The Fund's lectures are joined by the University's students, students of the Moscow State Law Academy, the First Moscow Law Institute, the Higher School of Economics, the Academy of Water Transport, etc.
The E.M. Ametistov Center for Human Rights Protection successfully collaborates with the Institute of European Law at the State Institute of Foreign Relations at the RF Foreign Ministry, the Russian State Library, the Polish Helsinki Federation, the Moscow School of Political Studies, Moral Rearmament, a public movement from Switzerland, the International Amnesty Support Center (Moscow, the Independent Expert and Legal Council and other government and public organizations. With support from the Open Society Institute (Soros Fund), the Center is now elaborating a long-term project on setting up a system of correspondence training courses using Internet technology.
Professor Olga Nikolayevna Zimenkova-Ametistova, Ph.D. (Law), is the president of the E.M. Ametistov Center for Human Rights Protection.
Contact telephone: (095) 202-79-75; Mailing address: Moscow 119435, Post Office Box 662;
E-mail : fond@ametistov.ru
The center carries the name of Ernest Mikhailovich Ametistov PH.D (Law) (1934-1998), Russian Constitutional Court justice, Scholar Emeritus of the Russian Federation, member of the Russia Association for International Law, the Union of Journalists of Russia, and the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the author of the by-laws of the historical and educational Memorial Society.
E.M. Ametistov was born on May 17, 1934 in Leningrad. He spent his school years in Karaganda, Voronezh and Krasnodar. In 1958 he graduated from the School of Law of Moscow State University.
In 1958-66, he worked as an editor at the Juridical Literature and International Relations' publishing houses. From 1966 to 1976 he was a senior scholar at the Institute of the International Workers' Movement at the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1976 until 1991 he was the scientific director of the National Research Institute on Soviet Legislation.
In 1971 he defended his candidate's dissertation devoted to international labor law, and in 1984 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the relationship between international and internal law. He was the author of more than 140 scientific papers.
He wrote a lot for periodicals on issues related to the reform of the political system, the establishment of the rule of law, the improvement of the human rights legislation and the implementation of relevant international standards for accomplishing these goals.
In 1990, Memorial Society put him forward as a candidate for a people's deputy of the Russian Soviet Federation at the Krasnopresnensky district in Moscow. He won 31.8 percent of votes in the second round, losing to Oleg Poptsov.
On October 29, 1991, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Soviet Federation voted him a Constitutional Court justice in the first round of voting. He took the oath of office on November 1, 1991.
He stood against the Constitutional Court being involved in the political struggle and condemned bloodshed in Chechnya. He often presented dissenting opinions that disagreed in whole or in part with the Constitutional Court decisions when he considered that they had been passed by a majority not in accord with, or in contradiction to, the law and the Constitution. Among journalists he was known as "Mr. Dissenting Opinion".
He passed away on September 7, 1998, after a grave illness, and having gone courageously through most difficult surgery. This happened half a year before his pending retirement as a justice of the RF Constitutional Court.
Ludmila Alexeeva - Chairperson of International Helsinki Human Rights Federation.
Boris Zolotukhin, lawyer, member of the Political Council of Democratic Choice of Russia, a public organization
Vladimir Kartashkin, chairman of the RF President Human Rights Commission
Anatoly Kononov, a justice of the RF Constitutional Court
Mikhail Krasnov, Doctor in Law, Professor, Vice-President of
the Informatic for the Democrasy Foundation (INDEM)
Tamara Morshchakova, deputy chairman of the RF Constitutional Court
Karina Moskalenko, lawyer, director of the International Amnesty Support Center
Yuri Nekrasov, journalist and author of many publications
Lev Ponomaryov, chairman of the board of Hot Line, a regional public human rights support organization
Henry Reznik, chairman of the board of the Moscow City Bar
Alexei Simonov, chairperson of the Glasnost Protection Foundation
Mikhail Fedotov, secretary of the RF Union of Journalists and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Yuri Schmidt, lawyer, chairman of the Russian Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Protection
Stanislav Chernichenko, director of the Center for International Law and Humanitarian Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Colvill Kulrossky (Great Britain)), ex member of the UN Human Rights Committee, member of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Protection
Michael Posner (USA), executive director of the Committee for Human Rights Protection
Mary Holland (USA), lawyer, member of the Committee for Human Rights Protection
Martin Sheinin (Finland), director of the Human Rights Institute at the Academic University in Turku.