Russia: Human rights commissioner elected

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 10:19:20 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Russia: Human rights commissioner elected 

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Russia: Human rights commissioner elected  


State Duma elects human rights commissioner

The State Duma on 22 May elected Communist legal expert Oleg Mironov
as Russia's human rights commissioner. Mironov ran unopposed in the
second round of balloting, because in the first round, he was the only
one of the 11 candidates for the job who received the two-thirds
majority needed to advance to the second round. Mironov will give up
his Duma seat, but he told NTV on 22 May that as human rights
commissioner, he will retain his immunity from criminal prosecution
unless the Duma votes to strip him of it. The Duma sacked Sergei
Kovalev, an outspoken critic of the war in Chechnya, as its human
rights commissioner in March 1995.

Although the federal constitutional law outlining the duties of
Russia's human rights commissioner was adopted in March 1997, attempts
to elect a commissioner in April and September of that ended in
stalemate (see chronology 18.9.97). In each attempt, Mironov gained
more votes than any other candidate, but no candidate received enough
votes to advance to the second round of balloting in the Duma. A deal
between the Our Home Is Russia (NDR) and Communist factions finally
broke the deadlock. The Communists agreed to allow the NDR to appoint
Roman Popkovich as Duma Defense Committee chairman, replacing Lev
Rokhlin. In exchange, the NDR agreed to support Mironov as human
rights commissioner.

Sources: 
RFE/RL Newsline 25 May 1998. 
--------

(From the moderator: the message above is re-posted from the database
of the NUPI Centre for Russian Studies in Oslo. For more details on
the issue, as well as for other news and data on Russia, see the
Centre's web site at http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/krono.exe/
Boris)

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