«OPEN GOVERNMENT» AND HUMAN RIGHTS

«Open Government» as a system of governance aimed at broader involvement of citizens to public debates and decision-making processes has operated in Russia since 2012. Currently it includes a range of Internet-services such as «Gosuslugi», the Federal portal of drafts of normative legal acts, the «Russian Public Initiative» project, etc. The authors consider the operation of «open government» services through the prism of human rights and freedoms. These services broaden opportunities for realization of such rights and freedoms as the right to free seeking and receiving information, the right to participate in public affairs, the right to petition, the right to association, the freedom of opinion and expression, the freedom of researches and others. Also, the «open government» services foster more effective realization of significant part of civil, political, social, and economical rights and freedoms. At the same time, it is emphasized that not all of Russian citizens use these services. It happens because of so-called digital inequality. Overcoming this type of inequality is an urgent task for the nearest future.