Alena Dikalchuk, student of the module “Protection of Human Rights within and across the European Union”:

“The new academic discipline attracted me with the opportunity to consider the advocacy in more detail as one of the most important institutions of civil society. I believe that studying the practice of protecting human rights in the field of advocacy in the European Union member states and in other countries can help improve the quality of legal assistance in our country. Therefore, I enjoyed attending the classes and completing the assignments on this and other topics. The discipline showed me the prospects for development in the scientific field, and also opened up new horizons for professional activity”.

Egor Simonenko, participant in the game trial:

“As a person who loves films about the court, all its hearings and proceedings, as soon as I heard about the event, I immediately wanted to participate in it. During the meeting it was very worrying and terrifying, but at the same time it was very exciting. Thanks to the fact that we were supervised by wonderful students, we had a good line of defense. I would be happy to participate in such an event again”.

Marina Nezvanova, member of the research team and participant of the pilot session “European practices of the human rights protection”:

“My institute is extremely active in education, science and awareness activities. I try to participate in every event I can, as I believe that all obtained knowledge will be useful to me in the future. As soon as I learned about the establishment of the research team under the ProEU project, I immediately decided to join it and study the European practices used for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Thus, I participated in the meetings of the research team, made the mini-reports and got acquainted with other members. Together we became part of the pilot session within the conference “Modern Trends in the Development of Russian and Foreign Legislation” and presented our project, which considered the institution of the ombudsperson in Ireland. As a result of the conference, we came up with the idea to conduct a comparative analysis of the activities of ombudspersons at various stages of the development of this institution in the world”.

Alexander Darwin, trainee of the first training course “Challenges in monitoring and protecting human rights in the European Union and the Russian Federation”:

“As a future economist, I am actively engaged in expanding my horizons. The university helps me with this, various master classes, interactive games, and courses are regularly organized here. Together with the practicing lawyers, I learned a lot of new facts, in particular about the existing institutions and initiatives for the protection of human rights in Russia and in Europe. After completing the training course, I had a desire to delve into the study of the problem of human rights regulation, especially in relation to the economic sphere, in various countries”.

Tatyana Galyamina, trainee of the second training course “Challenges in monitoring and protecting human rights in the European Union and the Russian Federation”:

“It seems to me that the issue of protecting human rights is not given enough attention in teaching and learning of social science as the discipline. However, it is rather irrational to deal with this complicated issue without mentors. Together with my groupmates, I signed up for the training course and we did not regret it. We learned a lot about the content of international, European and Russian documents regulating human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as about the activity of various human rights institutions and the role of courts in protecting human rights. In addition, I was very impressed with the teaching methods of the organizers of the training course, so I will apply some of their techniques in my teaching practice.

Artur Ambaryan, participant of the training with elements of the role-playing game “Model UN”:

“The event allows each student to express his or her opinion regarding his or her native land. I am very glad that the project “Model UN” is being held at Penza State University, and I am also very grateful to those who made their efforts to arrange the event. It was exciting, but at the same time interesting to answer and guess what the next questions might be asked after an address or statement on behalf of the country”.