Multi-cultural prison in Nordic countries and Russia

Social inclusion is aimed at ensuring that all groups of people within a society feel valuable and important. It is a process of improving the conditions for participation in society and especially for people in disadvantaged situations.

The main idea of the project is to study current situation with human rights violation against foreign inmates in Nordic countries and NW Russia (St-Petersburg and Republic of Karelia) and to develop tools for their protection, social inclusion and prevention of discrimination by strengthening civil society and cooperation between NGOs and local authorities.

The project is funded by the Nordic Council of Minister's programme Nordic-Russian Co-op on Civil Society & Human Rights for the period of 1.11.2020 - 30.6.2022.

The aim of the project is to establish a Nordic-Russian expert’s network to ensure exchange of knowledge, experiences and best practices for human rights defense and social inclusion of foreign inmates and ex-prisoners. Further, the project aims at distributing Nordic research findings and  knowledge on best practices among specialists, experts and researches in North-West Russia.

This will be achieved by:

• Establishing Nordic-Russian experts network to summarize and analyse Nordic and Russian research, practice and experiences for human rights defense and social inclusion of foreign inmates and ex-prisoners.
• Developing and distributing recommendations for NGOs on cooperation with local authorities for human rights defense and social inclusion of foreign inmates and ex-prisoners.
• Raising awareness and knowledge of the social workers, psychologists and lawyers of NGOs on approaches to protect foreign inmates in cooperation with local authorities.

The project is targeted to Nordic and Russian experts and researchers, Russian and Nordic NGOs and local authorities, foreign inmates and ex-prisoners, Nordic and Russian (NW Russia) societies as well as Nordic and Russian students.

Expert meetings and seminar to monitor the situation and develop recommendations for NGOs on cooperation with local authorities

Distribution of project results through partner's web-sites, social networks and mass-media. 

Distribution of research reports, recommendations and presentation materials among partners, relevant NGOs and authorities.

Inclusion of project results into the practices of governmental social services.

The project will enhance visibility of the Nordic countries and Nordic cooperation among North-West Russian governmental and nongovernmental institutions. 

Nordic experts can share their experience with Russian partners. 

Russian practices and methods of work with foreign inmates will be introduced for Nordic experts.

Project coordinator

Centre for Nordic Studies, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki, Finland
Project leader: Dr. Larisa Kangaspuro,  larisa.kangaspuro@helsinki.fi

Nordic partners

Denmark

Copenhagen Business School, Department of International Economics, Government and Business
Contact person: Dr. Lizaveta Dubinka-Hushcha, ld.egb@cbs.dk 

NGO Danish-Belarusian Culture Society BELADANIA (Copenhagen) 
Contact person: Dr. Lizaveta Dubinka-Hushcha, ld.egb@cbs.dk 

Norway

NGO Stiftelsen Kvinnekollektivet ARKEN (Oslo)
Contact person: Kristin Kongelf

Finland

Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
Contact person: Professor Markku Kangaspuro

Russian partners

St-Petersburg

NGO «IMENA+» (St. Petersburg)
Contact person: Tatiana Bakulina

Republic of Karelia

Institute for Northern European Studies, Petrozavodsk State University
Contact person: Professor Yuri Kilin

New pro­ject: Multi-cultural prison in Nordic countries and Rus­sia, 17.12.2020