Human rights defenders endangered

Helsinki Committees Document Growing Persecution in Europe and Central Asia Sofia/Vienna, 20 November 2006. On the occasion of its General Assembly Meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 16-19 November 2006, members of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) expressed concern about the increasing climate of repression in which human rights defenders operate in many countries of Europe and Central Asia.

Campaigns in state-controlled Russian media stigmatize human rights defenders, accusing them of being enemies of the state, spies or traitors, and give impetus for threats against their person. Lists have been published on extremist nationalist websites stating names and addresses of human rights defenders and their families and calling for them to be killed. Recently murdered Anna Politkovskaya, who was the most prominent Russian journalist reporting on human rights violations in Chechnya, had received death threats from extremist nationalist movements as well as from security officials whose role in abuses she had exposed.

Russian authorities remain largely indifferent to these forms of intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders and journalists. The IHF wishes to remind the Russian state of its positive obligation under the article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights to protect the life and safety of its citizens and to promptly and thoroughly investigate any killings such as the Politkovskaya murder.

During the debate on the continuing tragedy in Chechnya, IHF members condemned ongoing abuses in the region, including disappearances and widespread torture. They further noted that Russian citizens lack access to objective information about the situation in the region given the restrictions on independent media and civil society activities in the country. Russian media is almost completely pro-governmental and new legislation on NGOs passed earlier this year gives the government excessive powers to interfere arbitrarily in the activities of human rights NGOs. This law should be immediately amended to bring it into compliance with European standards.

Russian attorney Karinna Moskalenko, one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers, received the 2006 IHF Recognition Award for insisting that Russian citizens have access to international standards of justice and for helping victims of human rights violations in the North Caucasus to bring their cases to the European Court of Human Rights. The citation of the award reads: “[For her work] Karinna Moskalenko deserves recognition, not persecution.”

In Uzbekistan, attacks on human rights defenders have escalated dramatically in the aftermath of the Andijan massacre in May 2005. This year, about 30 human rights defenders have been prosecuted for their legitimate activities, at least 11 are currently serving prison sentences, and other activists have been confined to psychiatric institutions for exercising their rights to expression and association. The international community has failed to address Uzbekistan’s deteriorating human rights record in an effective way. The sanctions adopted by the EU in the aftermath of the Andijan massacre were weakened recently despite the deteriorating human rights situation in the country and the failure of the Uzbek government to fulfill any of the human rights criteria set by the EU.

Over the past few years, the Belarusian government has liquidated almost all independent, pro-democracy civil groups in the country. On 28 November 2006, the Supreme Court will decide whether to suspend the activities of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, which has been on the verge of closure for a year because of charges of alleged tax evasion within an EU-TACIS program. A new Belarusian Criminal Code article, which came into force in January 2006, criminalizes legitimate civil society activities carried out on behalf of unregistered associations. Five persons have already been sentenced to different prison terms under this article. Alyaksandr Kazulin, one of the major pro-democracy opposition candidates running in the March 2006 presidential elections, remains imprisoned.

Given the deteriorating situation of human rights defenders in Europe and Central Asia, the IHF General Assembly decided to devote the 2007 yearly campaign of the IHF to the topic of endangered human rights defenders. This campaign will consist of federation-wide activities aimed at supporting and improving the protection of human rights activists who are at risk because of their efforts to promote compliance with international human rights standards. The IHF General Assembly also honored the memory of the late Hungarian philosopher György Bence, who was among the founders of the IHF.

For more information:
Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director, +43-676-6356612
Brigitte Dufour, IHF Deputy Executive Director, +32-473-363 891
Henriette Schroeder, IHF Press Officer, +43-676-725 48 29