International Federation
for Human Rights

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in the Russian Federation.

Brief description of the situation:

According to the information received, on April 8, 2008, officers of the court visited the flat where Mr. Stanislaw Dmitrievsky lives with his family, and threatened that they would confiscate all his property "to cover the debts of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society" (See Background Information).

Furthermore, in the night of April 9, 2007, the offices of the Centre of International Protection and of the "For Human Rights" movement, both based in Moscow and which are located one above the other in the same building, were assaulted by men in plain clothes, who claimed that the building belongs to them. They broke down the iron doors and dismantled stairs connecting the floors of the two offices. At that time, Ms. Svetlana Davydova, a lawyer with the Centre, was working on a complaint to the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) on a Chechen case.

The Centre of International Protection is working on most sensitive issues, such as the case of Mr. Mikhail Khodorkovskiy, political prisoners, the situations in Chechnya and Beslan, dispersals of Marches of Dissent, etc. Its lawyers also worked on the second appeal by the RCFS to the ECHR in Strasbourg, and are planning to work on the situation in Nizhny Novgorod and of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance.

The Observatory expresses its deepest concern regarding these new acts of harassment against Russian NGOs, which are further evidence of the determination of the Russian authorities to hinder the activities of human rights defenders, and recalls that the RCFS and the Nizhny-Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance have been subjected to many acts of harassment these past few years because of their human rights activities.

The Observatory further recalls that as a Participating State of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russia must conform with paragraph 8 of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Resolution on Strengthening OSCE Engagement with Human Rights Defenders and National Human Rights Institutions, which states that the OSCE Participating States recognise "the need for particular attention, support and protection for human rights defenders by the OSCE, its Institutions and field operations, as well as by participating States". The Observatory also urges the Russian authorities to conform to the Declaration of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Human Rights Defenders, so as to create an environment conductive to human rights defenders, to take effective measures to protect, promote, and respect them, to ensure their access to effective remedies, to take action to prevent attacks and harassment against them, and to ensure their effective access to the European Court of Human Rights.

Background information:

In February 2006, Mr. Dmitrievsky received a suspended sentence of two years in prison and four years of probation for "incitement to racial hatred" by the Sovetsky District Criminal Court (Nizhny-Novgorod), after Pravozaschita, a joint publication of RCFS and the Nizhny-Novgorod Society for Human Rights (NNSHR), released statements by two Chechen separatist leaders, calling for a peaceful resolution of the Russian-Chechen conflict. Subsequently, RCFS was dismantled by court order in February 2007, and the organisation then obtained its registration in Finland and another organisation was founded in Nizhny, the Nizhny-Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance.

On March 20, 2008, the police raided the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance and confiscated all the computers thereat. The police have also confiscated the mobile phone of Mr. Stanislaw Dmitrievsky. The motion to search the office of the Foundation to Promote Tolerance would have been signed by the Regional Prosecutor’s office.

Furthermore, several persons who are associated with the Other Russia in Nizhny Novgorod have already been interrogated as witnesses to another criminal case on alleged counterfeit software opened in October 2007 against the Foundation to Promote Tolerance, which is chaired by Ms. Oksana Chelysheva. The prosecutors also summoned former staff people who then stopped working with the Foundation.

Actions requested:

The Observatory urges the authorities of the Russian Federation to:

i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Stanislaw Dmitrievsky, all members of the RCFS, the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance, the Centre of International Protection, the "For Human Rights" movement as well as all human rights defenders;

ii. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned events, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law;

iii. Put an end to all acts of harassment against all human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, and ensure in all circumstances that they be able to carry out their work without unjustified hindrances;

iv. Comply with all the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular with Article 1, which provides that "everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels", Article 6.b, which provides that "everyone has the right, individually and in association with others [...] freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms", as well as with Article 12.2, which provides 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";

v. Comply with the provisions of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the 2nd Conference on the Human Dimension of the Cooperation and Security Conference in Europe (CSCE) (1990), and uphold in all circumstances the principles and provisions enshrined in the international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Russian Federation and which, in particular, guarantee freedoms of association, demonstration, expression and opinion, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

vi. More generally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Russian Federation.

Addresses:

· Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, Faxes:+ 7 095 206 5173 / 230 2408, Email: president@gov.ru;

· Mr. Valeev Ernest Abdulovich, Office of the Prosecutor General in Privolzhskiy Federal Circuit, Fax: +7 8312 78-45-27, 78-45-31

· Regional Prosecutor Maximenko Valery Alezeevich, Prosecutor’s office of NN Region, Fax: +7 831-2 61-85-03

· Mr. Stravinkas Vladimir Vintsuasovich, Investigatory Committee of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Fax: +7 831 2 618506

· Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Ustinov, 103793 g. Moskva K-31, Ul. B. Dimitrovka, d 15a, Russian Federation, Fax: + 7 095 292 88 48;

· Chairwoman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, 103132 g. Moskva, Staraya ploshchad, d 8/5,pod 3, Russian Federation, Fax:+70952064855;

· Vladimir Lukin, Russian Federal Ombudsman for Human Rights, Fax: +7 495 207-53-37;

· Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev, ul. Zhitnaya, 16, 117049 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Rossiia, 117049, Moskva, Fax: + 7 095 237 49 25;

· Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl, 32/34, 121200 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Fax:+ 7 095 244 2203;

· Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva Av. de la Paix 15, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland, e-mail : mission.russian@ties.itu.int, fax: +4122 734 40 44;

· Embassy of the Russian Federation in Brussels, 31-33 boulevard du Régent, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 513 76 49.

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of the Russian Federation in your respective country.

***

Geneva-Paris, April 11, 2008

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

RUS 003 / 0408 / OBS 054

Assault of NGOs offices / Harassment /

Obstacles to freedom of association
Russian Federation

April 11, 2008