Like most major NGOs and international organisations, the Observatory highly values the professionalism of the Human Rights Centre « Memorial », the oldest and most important human rights NGO in the Russian Federation: its accurate and reliable reports on the situation of human rights in the country are indeed unique. The organisation’s decision to pull out from Chechnya for safety reasons reflects to what extent the situation has deteriorated in the Caucasian Republic: Memorial had been working in Chechnya since 1995, notwithstanding the two brutal wars.
The absence of « Memorial » will create a huge gap in human rights protection and promotion, being one of the few channels of information between the Chechen population and the international community.
The Observatory has taken note of the intention of President Ramzan Kadyrov to sue « Memorial » for “slander” (Article 129 of the Criminal Code) following Mr. Oleg Orlov’s statement, Chairman of « Memorial », published on Memorial’s website on July 15, 2009 in which he accused President Kadyrov of being involved in Ms. Natalia Estemirova’s killing. The Observatory expresses its strong support with Mr. Oleg Orlov and stresses that Mr. Orlov only pointed out the comprehensive responsibility of Mr. Kadyrov in Ms. Estemirova’s murder as he has an overall control on the Chechen Republic and should make good use of it in order to ensure the protection and the safety of all human rights defenders. The Observatory affirms its commitment to closely follow the developments in the proceedings against Mr. Orlov as well as in the investigation into Ms. Estemirova’s assassination.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern about the ongoing climate of fear faced by human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, where, over the past years, three human rights defenders working on Chechnya have faced deadly attacks.
The suspension should be considered as the last move by « Memorial » to alert the international community on the failure - due either to a lack of capacity or a lack of willingness - of the Russian institutions to ensure the safety of human rights defenders in blatant violation of Article 12.2 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, which states that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”.
Therefore the Observatory, together with « Memorial », calls on the Russian authorities to comply with their international and regional commitments and ensure the protection of human rights defenders.
For further information, please contact:
· FIDH: Gaël Grilhot / Karine Appy, + 33 1 43 55 25 18
· OMCT: Delphine Reculeau, + 41 22 809 49 39
[1] See Observatory Press Release issued on July 15, 2009.