Human Rights Center "Memorial"

Appeal from the All-Russian Extraordinary Congress on the protection of human rights to the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

The All-Russian Extraordinary Congress on the Protection of Human Rights which took place in Moscow on 20^th and 21^st January 2001, bringing together representatives from 250 non-governmental organisations from 64 Russian regions, is appealing to the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with the request that they do not depart from the principle position that they have taken towards the Russian government with regards to events in the Chechen Republic and that the critical focus that they have placed on these events is not allowed to fade.

This appeal has been triggered by our deep concern for the life, health, safety and human dignity of hundreds of thousands of people currently living in the zone of armed conflict in the Chechen Republic and surrounding areas and also for the future of the entire region of the Northern Caucasus and the future of Russian democracy.

The Russian government is conducting a war in the Chechen Republic. It is a cruel and unlawful war and above all it is civilians, and particularly children, who are suffering as a result of military actions. These events must be regarded as military crimes and crimes against humanity. The situation in Chechnya is on the brink of the genocide of an entire people.

For the first time in Europe in 50 years, a city of half a million people was raised to the ground - the city of Grozny.

Both sides in this conflict have committed blatant violations of human rights and of the norms of humanitarian law. However, the number of civilian victims and the extent of material damage caused by military activities carried out by the federal troops are considerably greater. However, here the most important factor is that the actions carried out by the federal troops are the actions of lawful federal agencies of the Russian Federation, who, in signing a series of documents of international legal character, took upon herself the responsibility to respect human rights. It is this very duty which lends the human rights violations committed by the RF federal troops such magnitude.

Events in Chechnya have had the most destructive impact on all aspects of life in Russia and also endanger her progress towards the creation of a state of law. The government, in its blatant legislative nihilism in the Republic of Chechnya, has convinced both itself and society of the fact that, due to "higher state interests", it can continue to flout the Russian Constitution and legislation and norms of international law.

The employees of the agencies of law-enforcement sent to the Chechen Republic from numerous different regions of Russia have committed, and continue to commit, innumerable crimes including serious crimes against the individual. These people are acquiring experience of unrestrained violence against the civilian population in Chechnya, and when they return to defend law and order in the towns and villages of Russia, they present a serious threat to the safety of the residents there.

Tens of thousands of young people who carried out their military service in Chechnya return to civilian life morally and psychologically maimed.

All of this brings us to the unavoidable conclusion that the war in the Chechen Republic has become a national tragedy.

In 1996, the majority of us welcomed the inclusion of Russia in the Council of Europe, for the sake of the future of Russia and Europe. We hoped that this step would give Russia an additional chance to become a state of law and present further opportunities to exert influence over the Russian government with the aim of improving the situation from the point of view of the respect of human rights. One of the main tasks of the Council of Europe is, after all, wherever necessary, to exploit the various international mechanisms to exert influence over the member states in the interests of the citizens of those states.

Now Russia is a fully-fledged member of the Council of Europe and has the responsibility to fulfil the duty, which she voluntarily accepted, to respect the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Statute of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms. We are therefore grateful to the Parliamentary Assembly for the principle position which it has taken up in relation to events in the Northern Caucasus in passing a ruthless resolution on the Chechen Republic in April of last year.

However, regretfully, we must confirm that the majority of appeals, recommendations and demands included in Council of Europe resolutions have not been fulfilled. No noticeable improvements from the point of view of respect of human rights in the Chechen Republic have yet occurred.

We also regret that many European politicians refuse to see what is really happening in the Chechen Republic and are satisfied with the declarations given and the symbolic steps taken by the Russian federal government.

We also regret that the recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that the member states of the Council convey the problem of Russian violations of the conditions in the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms to the European Court of Human Rights has also not been fulfilled.

In the absence of any attempt to instigate such international legal proceedings, the invitation of the Russian delegation to the next sitting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe indicates the Council of Europe's recognition of their own complete impotence and the lowering of the standards of human rights in Europe to the level which they have now reached in Russia.