On 25 December, a press conference devoted to the matters and prospects of human rights in Sverdlovsk Region took place at the ITAR-TASS Regional Information Centre (Ekaterinburg). The region’s representatives spoke about the year-end results, as well as the most significant and problematic issues in human rights prospects of 2015.

Commissioner for Human Rights in Sverdlovsk Region Tatiana Merzlyakova expressed her gratitude to the human rights defenders for their work and reminded that they should develop a more competent approach to make the authorities and law-enforcement bodies reckon with them.

"The most important thing for me is to keep human dignity safe from violation," Ms Merzlyakova underscored, "Taking into consideration the condition of the current temporary detention facilities, I spoke up for the construction of new ones and have been solving financial problems. Unfortunately, we did not manage to solve the land allocation problem in Kamensk-Uralsk. By now, we could have had the same kind of detention centre as in Pervouralsk."

The issue of permitting members of public monitoring committees to make photos in the facilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service was outlined among the pressing problems. Ms Merzlyakova has already expressed her concern related to this issue to Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova and Chairman of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov.