Russian law office comments on C. of Europe recommendation on prosecutors' role
MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has approved a draft recommendation to member states of the Council on the role of public prosecutors outside the criminal justice systems of their countries.
"This document and the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the role of prosecutors in the criminal justice system together make up a set of European standards for prosecutorial activities," the spokeswoman for the Russian Office of the Prosecutor General, Marina Gridneva, told Interfax on Friday.
Gridneva said the Russian Office of the Prosecutor General had been closely involved in drafting the recommendation on prosecutors' role outside criminal justice.
She said it was at the initiative of the Russian agency that the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors proposed in October 2008 that the Committee of Ministers draft European principles for the status, powers and activities of prosecutors outside the criminal justice system.
The recommendation makes use of European practice, the spokeswoman said.
She cited a Council of Europe survey as showing that public prosecutors in more than 40 of the Council's 47 member states are vested with duties that extend beyond the criminal justice systems of their countries.
"The prosecution services of many countries, including the Russian Federation, enjoy extensive powers outside the criminal justice sphere, powers that are aimed at protecting public interests and the rights of individuals, especially members of socially vulnerable population groups - children, the disabled, pensioners and so on. Such activities are based, in particular, on social security law, and family, labor, civil, environmental, election and entrepreneurial law," Gridneva said.
Activities of this kind enable Russian prosecutors to "annually protect the rights and legitimate interests of millions of people," she said.
