Supported by a group of members of the Berlin branch of YHRM, a Russian team of the Youth Human Rights Movement managed to organise a number of public actions and meetings with partners concerning the common project “Volunteers of Human Rights” while visiting the German capital from the 20th to the 25th of May. The given stay did not only offer the opportunity to carry on discussions and talks with present and future partners and volunteers of the project, but also to make an attempt to understand to which extent the west European youth is interested in human rights and East Europe.

The project “Volunteers of Human Rights” which lasts from 2008 to 2010 aims at the advance and development of international volunteering projects for activists working in the context of human rights and civil initiatives. Started in April of 2008 it involves organisations and groups from Russia, the Ukraine and Germany. The project is promoted by the German foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (www.stiftung-evz.de, possible to choose English language).

One of the most important meetings in terms of understanding the possibilities of a strategic cooperation of East and West Europeans in the range of human rights was the get-together with the member of the German parliament (the Bundestag) Marieluise Beck who presents the green party B?ndnis 90/Die Gr?nen and deal with the situation in the CIS.

The most significant event became the interactive lection “The present right wing tendencies in Russia and Europe” which was organised in cooperation with the anti-Fascist archive “Apabiz” (www.apabiz.de) in a youth caf?. The Russian participants Anastasia Denisova from Krasnodar and Dmitri Makarov from Moscow did not accent the numerous facts on manifestations of intolerance within the Russian society, but concentrated on the situation of the anti-fascist movement in Russia. As a result German and Russian anti-Fascists discussed the need for a search of new and complex answers, as far as methods, starting with street violence, closing with international cultural festivals, appeared to be ineffective and inadequate.

Referring to the meetings, a number of concrete agreements about the advancement of the project “Volunteers of Human Rights”, but also about other programs and directions of the YHRM could be reached with representatives of different organisations, among which are “Amnesty International Berlin”, “European Exchange” and the initiative “Human Rights in Belarus”, “Action Reconcilation Service for Peace”, the social project “Projekthaus Potsdam – Babelsberg”, the youth organisation “Interlog” and the project “EXIT” which deals with exits out of the right wing scene.

Team of the project “Volunteers of Human Rights”
Irina Aksenova