International Helsinki Federation on problem of Chechnya

The information and analytical Internet agency "Caucasian Knot" publishes the full text of the statement of the International Helsinki Federation.

Appeal to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers: Address the Problem of Chechnya

Vienna, 27 October 2003. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe should use the opportunity of its session on 5-6 November 2003 in Chisinau/Moldova to address the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic in a manner demanded by the gravity of the abuses there.

It is the proclaimed political mandate of the Council of Europe to be an intergovernmental organisation aiming to "protect human rights, pluralist democracy and the rule of law", and article 3 of its statute clearly demands:

"Every member of the Council of Europe must accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjoyment by all persons within its jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and collaborate sincerely and effectively in the realisation of the aim of the Council as specified in Chapter I."

The Russian Federation blatantly and persistently violates this article, particularly in Chechnya, but without an appropriate and clear response from the Council of Europe. The lack of effective reaction by the governing body of the CoE, the Council of Ministers, seriously threatens to damage the integrity of this institution.

The Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), in recommendation 1600 of 2 April 2003 to the Committee of Ministers, considered that so far the efforts by all actors involved have failed to improve the human rights situation and to ensure that past human rights violations, and particularly war crimes, are adequately prosecuted. The Committee of Ministers has ignored this assessment, and has instead preferred to put all its stake on the so-called "political solution" of the conflict as designed by the Russian authorities. But this "political solution" leaves aside the other side of the armed conflict - the separatists - and has done nothing so far to improve the human rights situation in Chechnya.

The Parliamentary Assembly also recommended:

"If the efforts to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations are not intensified, and the climate of impunity in the Chechen Republic prevails, to consider proposing to the international community the setting up of an ad hoc tribunal to try war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Chechen Republic."

Four years after the start of the 2nd war the high level of human rights violations remains unchanged, as does the climate of impunity. The prosecuting bodies are either unwilling or unable to find and bring to justice the guilty parties. Efforts of authorities of the Russian Federation and the Kadyrov administration to improve this are without visible results for now more than four years, and make the impression of being done only for the sake of creating an image of addressing the problems without really doing so.

The number of complaints from victims of egregious human rights violations to the European Court of Human Rights continues to rise, yet the Court is ill-equipped to deal with the large numbers of applications that stem from armed conflict. More disturbingly, there are growing numbers of serious incidents against Chechens who have filed complaints to the European Court: in separate cases known to the IHF, in 2003, an applicant to the Court was extra-judicially executed at home by Russian security forces; in mid-2002, an applicant was detained by Russian forces in front of witnesses and has since "disappeared"; and in five other cases, applicants have received death threats against themselves and their relatives and demands that they withdraw their applications to the Court.

Urgent measures are needed, both by the international community and the Russian government to address these developments and afford applicants to the European Court every protection.

The IHF urges the Committee of Ministers to address the Chechnya question in a resolution. Since the human rights situation continues to deteriorate, we repeat the appeal that the IHF, jointly with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, made to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for its session in January 2003:

• We urge the Committee of Ministers to ensure that its resolution makes clear that camp closures that amount to de facto forcible return of internally displaced persons are unacceptable.
• We urge the Committee of Ministers to ensure that its resolution expresses concern about the continuing high civilian toll of the conflict, and calls on both sides to stop targeting civilians and to abide by international humanitarian law.
• We urge the Committee of Ministers to ensure that its resolution deplores the fact that the Russian government has failed to provide a detailed list of investigations into crimes committed during the Chechnya conflict, and to support the renewed request of the Parliamentary Assembly, asking the Russian government to submit a detailed list.
• We urge the Committee of Ministers to call on the Russian government to agree to a new mandate for the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya that includes human rights monitoring, and to facilitate the long overdue visits by the above-mentioned U.N. special mechanisms to Chechnya.
• We urge the Committee of Ministers to include in its resolution a call on the Russian government to authorize the publication of all CPT reports on the Russian Federation without further delay.

Additionally we call upon the Committee of Ministers to take the following measures to address the situation in Chechnya:

• to deplore reported incidents of extra-judicial execution, "disappearance" and intimidation against Chechen applicants to the European Court of Human Rights and call upon the Russian authorities urgently to investigate these incidents, prosecute the perpetrators and guarantee the security and safety of those who appeal to the Court;
• to increase the effectiveness of the current mandate of the CoE experts working in the Office of the Special Representative of the Russian Federation for Human Rights in the Chechen Republic as regards their possibility of influencing the human rights situation; since late April 2003;
• in order to increase the monitoring activities, to instruct the Secretary General "to make contacts, collect information or furnish advice", or to "issue an opinion or recommendation" as is foreseen in paragraph 4 of the 1994 Declaration of the CoE;
• to ameliorate the assistance programs in the North Caucasus with the human rights situation as the priority objective; sufficient funds should be allocated to these programs;
• to urge the Russian Federation to fully comply with the Resolution 1323 of the Parliamentary Assembly;
• to encourage its member states to launch an interstate complaint on the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights, with a request to the court to review and comment on the continuous grave violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.