Human rights Day is celebrated around the world on 10 December. On this day in 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was the first to formulate human rights provisions. It includes a wide range of human rights (political, civil, social, cultural and economic) and forms a single international standard in this area

On December 07, 2018 - on the eve of the International Day of Human Rights - IOM Moscow Chief of Mission took part in an awarding ceremony for the winners of St. Petersburg student Competition "Human Rights-2018". Alexander Shishlov, the Ombudsperson in St. Petersburg holds the Competition annually among students of St. Petersburg Universities with the support of the Committee on Science and Higher Education and the Committee on Law, Order and Security of St. Petersburg. This year more than 300 scientific and creative works from 23 higher educational institutions of St. Petersburg were submitted to the competition. 128 works reached the final part of the competition: 63 in the poster/ caricature/photo nomination, 30 essays, 27 articles and 6 videos.

For the seventh year the Competition of the Ombudsperson in St. Petersburg contributes to increase students ' interest in topical issues of protection of human rights and dignity of the individual, the relationship between the state and the individual, the activities of state and public human rights institutions.

IOM Moscow has been a partner of the Competition since 2014, together with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Red Cross and others.

The award ceremony was attended by Abdusattor Esoev, Director of the Bureau of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Moscow, Ann Elizabeth Ravetto, Deputy Representative of the UNHCR in the Russian Federation, Katrina Netland, Consul of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Norway, Svetlana Agapitova, Child Rights Ombudsperson in St. Petersburg, Andrei Maximov, Chairman of the Committee on Science and High School, Marina Okrushko, Deputy Head of the Federal Bailiff Service Department for St. Petersburg.

The winners were welcomed and congratulated by Victor Bogorad, graphic artist, Illustrator, the Ambassador of United Sketches - the international society for the protection of cartoonists to Russia, Igor Kucherenko - the President of the international bar Association "St. Petersburg", Natalia Zeibert - Director of the information center for migration legislation of the St. Petersburg regional branch of the all-Russian public organization "Russian Red Cross" and others.

A special topic proposed by IOM Moscow for the 2018 Competition: «The Global Compact for Migration: how it will help in empowering migrants in Russia and in the world». It was chosen by IOM in order to draw attention to topical issues of the modern agenda – namely, the global approach to solving the problems of migration in the world.

Abdusattor Esoev presented the special prize to Georgy Golovkin, a second year student of St. Petersburg branch of the All-Russian State University of Justice for his essay, written on IOM proposed topic. IOM Special Prize - Paul Collier's book " Exodus: how migration changes our world."

Winners of the "Human Rights" competition:

In the "Article" category: The best work belongs to Ivan Rusakov from St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation: "The right to the health of prisoners: actual problems of implementation and ways to solve them".

In the category “Essay”: The best work of Victoria Marynych, a student of Russian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen: “The accusatory deviation of justice in the Russian Federation, as the reason for the violation of the human right to judicial protection”.

In the category "Poster / Caricature / Photo": The best work was created by Ekaterina Bulavina, St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. She presented series of works "Freedom of speech".

In the nomination "Animation video / Video": The winners were Valentina Shmatko and Maria Shpineva from St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture with the work: “Bulling”.

Photos from the Ombudsman in St. Petersburg web-site