RC-26 has successfully organized an interim conference entitled "Protection of Human Rights: Institutions and Practices", in St.Petersburg, Russia, on 13-14 June 2013. The Russian Political Science Association Human Rights Research Committee and the St. Petersburg branch of the National Research University Higher School of Economics have contributed to the organization and hosted the conference at the Kochubey Dacha, in Pushkin. Twenty-six scholars and practitioners have come together with a view to analyze and compare governmental and non-governmental human rights protection mechanisms within stable and "young" democracies. Five panels were organized around the following themes: national and regional human rights policy, the Russian ombudsman system as a case study, human rights in post-conflict and transitional societies,IGO-NGO interaction in human rights, and the Arab Spring from the perspective of human rights.