Ekaterina V . Kiseleva (Екатерина Вячеславовна Киселева)

The migration flow that rushed to the European region from African and Middle Eastern states and other parts of the world and grew significantly in the second decade of XXI century, has given rise to new human rights protection challenges, exposing, among others, the veiled trend of de-Christianization of Europe, which has been emerging for a considerable time.

The right to education has a fundamental importance for children in migration context. Besides its general value, realization of the right to education is a prerequisite sine qua non for successful integration of migrant children into the host society. This article touches upon the right to education of migrant children in the context of activity of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, that has produced four general comments, each having provisions of the right of education. The paper reveals that the significance of the mentioned Committee’s work is being strengthened and supported by means of basing the conclusions of this treaty body on the outcomes of other treaty bodies that have wider participation of States. The two joint general comments adopted in November, 2017, by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, on ...

The facts about the subject of legal regulation constitute an essential prerequisite for the creation of legal norms, including norms of international law. Lack of reliable data or their distortion leads to norm-creation, which is inadequate to life, and, thus, to inefficient legal regulation. Critical significance of the evidence base in the field of international legal regulation of migration is stressed in numerous international legal instruments. Creating and maintaining the evidence base on migration issues is carried out within the United Nations system, as well as in other international intergovernmental organizations, e.g. of regional level. Despite considerable efforts by the international community in this direction, in the collection, aggregation and use of statistical data on migration there is an imbalance between different countries and regions in terms of availability of the data. Crucial character bears the imbalance between developed and developing countries in this...

To date, various international treaties have been adopted at the universal and regional levels, guaranteeing the protection of every person’s freedom of conscience and religion. Moreover, international monitoring mechanisms have been established to protect this human freedom within the framework of the UN, as well as various regional organizations (OSCE, Council of Europe, African Union). (1) In this article, the authors analyze these mechanisms and identify both positive practices and negative discriminatory practices against Christians—citizens of the states of the Global South. (2) The methodological basis of the study involves a combination of general scientific (dialectical, historical, inductive, deductive, analytical, synthetic) and particular scientific methods (formal–legal, comparative–legal, interpretative, statistical, procedural, and dynamic). (3) The use of these allowed the authors to identify a number of key problems in the indicated discourse and to draw conclusions...

The migration flow that rushed to the European region from African and Middle Eastern states and other parts of the world and grew significantly in the second decade of XXI century, has given rise to new human rights protection challenges, exposing, among others, the veiled trend of de-Christianization of Europe, which has been emerging for a considerable time.

Holy Mountain Athos has a unique legal status, with self-government of twenty monasteries between which the entire Athos peninsula is divided, the state sovereignty of Greece over this territory and the canonical submission to the Constantinople Patriarchate. Such “trilateral” subordination leads to the fact that, on the one hand, the European Union, of which Greece is a member, is trying to encroach upon the unshakable thousand-year avaton rule. On the other hand, the anti-canonical actions of Patriarch Bartholomew led to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church was forced to stop the Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, to which the monasteries of Athos are canonically subordinated, including the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery. Moreover, the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew are not related to internal church issues, but are the result of the policy pursued by Western states in Ukraine. The position of Athos, as the chief custodian of the purity of the...

In context of reviewing several Sustainable Development Goals through the mechanism of UN Highlevel Political Forum in 2019, the purpose of this paper is to enrich the dialogue on the interconnection and mutual influence between different goals in the example of Goals 4, 8 and 10 relating to migration and education. Both migration and education can be found in the Declaration, and goals and targets, specifically. The issues of migration and education are intertwined in many aspects. The three points were chosen from the many mentioned in the development agenda, which are the access of migrant children to education, the quality of that education in context of integration problems faced by children and educational systems and education in the field of migration, and academic migration. As an illustration to the problems raised, the experience of the Russian Federation is taken, as this country is in the top-list of migrants receiving states for years. Education on migration is taken a...

Unity of all movements of the population covered by the concept of migration as a subject of international legal regulation, in terms of risks and the potential for States, societies and individuals objectively pushes States to a comprehensive approach towards the phenomenon of migration. Inter-State cooperation on migration issues is being developed in different forms: treaty form and non-treaty form. And in all cases a share of inconsistency remains. Cooperation of States in the form of international agreements has not resulted yet in a comrehensive treaty on migration, on the contrary, the demand for such a treaty still follows from the analysis of only non-legally binding instruments, such as those by the UN General Assembly. Nowadays, one can only single out the blocks on the most important aspects of migration, e.g. human rights, fight against crime, etc., i.e. agreements developed as part of other branches of public international law, but applicable to the situation of migrat...

Owing to the absence of universally agreed approaches to migration, which is related to environmental changes and/or natural disasters, the case of sinking states population changes of residence is taken to illustrate nuances in terminology that reflect the substantial differences in legal treatment of such persons. This paper presents the existing variations of denoting the link between migration and environmental changes of sinking states with the special focus on the shades of meaning of the terminology in use and then suggests to give separate attention to the forced or voluntary character of such migration and its expression in terms. Keywords—International law; Migration; Sinking states

Background/Objectives: The authors analyzed the legal status of BRICS (Association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in comparison with similar international forums and defined BRICS as an international quasi-organization. Methods: A method of comparative analysis is the primary methodical tool used in the respective part of the paper. The desk research is followed by the analysis of two issues that have not yet attracted specific scientific attention. Findings: While many researches in sphere of BRICS’ activity analyze economic integration, the authors paid attention to the new spheres of cooperation of BRICS States: Outer space activities and Africa as a continent. The authors point out that the fact of all BRICS States being space faring nations opens great horizons for further cooperation. The growing importance of Africa in the foreign policy agenda of both individual BRICS States and the organization itself is an undeniable trend of our time, as well. Application/Improvements: The research results are useful in deepening understanding of BRICS as a new actor in international relations, both generally and regarding these two topics of interstate cooperation (space and Africa).

Background/Objectives: In 2015 the international community adopted a new agenda for sustainable development for the period of 2016–2030- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the article, authors critically analyzed some of SDGs. Methods: The article used scientific methodological approach, which facilitates to determine the whole canvas of the research, identify the main aspects and concepts of the study. The research used scientific methods of cognition, i.e., dialectics, analysis, and synthesis, the method of generalization and system-structural method. The article also practiced special methods of science such as legal and technical, historical and forecasting methods. Findings: In this article, the authors critically analyze the SDGs with a view to determine problematic aspects of their implementation in the field of human rights protection, environmental protection, disaster risk reduction and management of migration and suggest ways to overcome these obstacles. Authors made many recommendations in these spheres. At the present stage, in the framework of global efforts aimed at the implementation of the SDGs, it is important to pay more attention to the mechanisms for monitoring the achievement of the goals. In this sense, a compliance review at the level of inter-regional, regional and sub-regional organizations can make a significant contribution and provide diversified, reliable and proven tools to assess progress in achieving the SDGs. Such reviews will identify regional trends, causes of problems, and similarities; they will facilitate the exchange of best practices, lessons learned and development of solutions and measures of mutual support at the global level, taking into account specific regional and sub-regional needs. Application/Improvements: The results could be used by UN bodies, inter-regional, regional and sub-regional organizations, ministers of States and other relevant stakeholders, which implements SDGs.

Objectives: International law contains several provisions on the protection of family and marriage rights of a person. The concept of a “family”, though not legally defined, has always been understood in a centuries-rooted way, i.e. as a union of a man and a woman. Recent decades witness aggressive promotion of distorted understanding of a family. Methods/ Statistical Analysis: The analysis of international practices as well as comparative legal instruments on human rights shows that in the 20th century the concept of a family was attacked by the lobbyists of ‘LGBT’s rights’. The phenomenon that was considered throughout a human history as a deviation is nowadays declared to be a universal value. Findings: The article explores the examples of France, Germany and Russia to show how protection of human dignity comes to an absurd when dignity is found in unnatural relationships and when those not willing to accept such an approach are persecuted, talking about individuals, and heavily criticized, if we speak about states. Application/Improvement: The authors of the article attempt to attract attention to inconsistencies between the obligations had undertaken by states in the domain of family rights of a person and the newest interpretations of these obligations that contract with the nature of the states’ commitments.

Background/Objectives: The term "dignity" is widely used in the texts of the international legal instruments, but international law has not developed its agreed definition. This concept of dignity is reflected in the first international human rights instruments. Methods/Statistical analysis: Analysis of international instruments on human rights shows that in the 20th century, the concept of dignity became the basis of human rights law. This is confirmed by the fact that, firstly, dignity is inherent to all members of the human family. Secondly, all human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights. And thirdly, these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person. That is why the better understanding of human dignity as a traditional value can boost promotion and fulfillment of human rights. Findings: The article deals with the concept of dignity from the standpoint of philosophy, Western Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy that contributed to the formulation of the concept of dignity, its definition and elements, and international law. Applications/Improvements: The centrality of human dignity in universal human rights texts can be explained by its core nature. It is fundamental and at the same time it seems uncontroversial enough to attract the entirety of the world community notwithstanding the diversity of morals, cultures, ethnicities, and religions that exist within the broad range of nations.