MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during a televised interview on Friday that the human rights situation in the country was "far from perfect."
The statement came during an interview with Swiss correspondents before Medvedev's upcoming visit to Switzerland September 21-22.
"We must protect [human rights] using all possible methods, first of all through legal processes," Medvedev said, adding: "There are so many [human rights violations] because there is no effective government and no effective legal system."
Medvedev said that the country's legal institutes were in need of reform.
"In my opinion, the human rights situation and how [cases] are handled in the law courts, remains the result of our imperfect legal system," he said.
According to Medvedev, as the court system stands today in Russia, it does not provide effective protection for fair court decisions. "Our court system is structured so that one may quickly turn to [the European Court of Human Rights in] Strasbourg," he said.
Though Medvedev said this was "good on the one hand because people have the opportunity to turn to Strasbourg," he also added that this approach was preventing the development of Russia's legal system.
He said Russia needs to develop its legal system so as not to "overburden" the ECHR. The president suggested that the court issue is an "internal problem and at the same time one of reforming the legal system."
Medvedev received his PhD in private law from Leningrad State University in 1990.
Russia has lost the majority of cases brought against it in the Strasbourg-based court. In 2008, the court ruled against Russia 245 times. Overall, around 20% of all complaints made to the court in the past decade have involved Russia.
