Professor Bill Bowring’s guest this week on “25 Questions” is Olga Gnezdilova. Olga Gnezdilova is a lawyer from Voronezh who is currently living in Berlin and works for the Stichting Justice Initiative [SJI] – in Russian, Pravovaya initsiativa [Правовая инициатива]. Pravovaya Initsiativa is a civil society organisation dedicated to the legal protection of victims of human rights violations connected to armed conflict and counter-terrorism operations, torture and gender-based violence in the post-Soviet region. Pravovaya Initsiativa works to provide victims of such abuse with access to effective legal remedies on the domestic level, and to utilize international mechanisms, including the European Court of Human Rights, when domestic remedies are inadequate. Pravovaya Initsiativa also builds the capacity of legal professionals, NGOs, human rights defenders and other stakeholders through training, legal consultations, partnerships and original research and publications on human rights issues, raising public awareness about the protections afforded by international human rights standards and current gaps in national policy and practice. The video can be viewed below and on our YouTube Channel.
