The Conference was being jointly organised by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, the Russian State University of Justice under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Bioethics Unit of the Council of Europe. The main focus was on the key principle of human rights’ protection enshrined both in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and in the Oviedo Convention.
Recent case-law of the European Court of Human Rights together with the jurisprudence of the Russian courts reflect the topicality of this issue. They also demonstrate also the importance of examining the implementation of this principle from both medical and legal perspectives. The Conference did so looking also at specific biomedical fields of application, such as organ and tissue donation and management of infectious deceases. It provided a unique opportunity to look into ethical and legal aspects of the implementation of the principle of informed consent, from the perspectives of various State authorities, national and international organisations to continue the interdisciplinary dialog and exchange of good practices to tackle the matter of common concern.
The conference was opened by:
Mr Valentin V. Ershov, rector Russian state University of Justice
Mr Philippe Boillat, Director General, Directorate General of Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Council of Europe,
Mr Vladimir V. Tambovtsev, Deputy Head of Chancery, Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation
Ms Oksana S. Kapinus, rector of the Academy of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, State Counsellor of Justice and Svetlana B. Solovyeva, Director of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation were also invited to open the conference
Mrs Tatyana Vavilycheva, Judge at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, as well as Ms Irina V. Iatsenko, Senior lawyer of the European Court of Human Rights also took part.