As the Federal Supreme Court in Moscow will hear on January 23, 2007 the appeal of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) against the decision to close it down, the Observatory calls upon the Russian judicial authorities to put an end to any act of harassment against it.
Indeed, on October 13, 2006, the Court of Nizny-Novgorod decided to close down the RCFS, on the ground that Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, RCFS Executive Director, had been sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence for “incitation to national hatred” in February 2006[1]. Indeed, according to article 15 of the Law on the Fight Against Extremist Activities, “if the head or a member of the leadership of an NGO makes a public declaration in which he or she calls for an extremist act or if he or she was sentenced for an extremist act, his or her organisation must publicly declare its disapproval within five days [...]; the failure to do so by an organisation will be considered as an extremist act on the part of this organisation”. Moreover, the judge based himself on article 19 of the Federal Law on NGOs, according to which “a person who was sentenced on the basis of the Law on the Fight Against Extremist Activities cannot be co-founder of an organisation”. On October 19, 2006, RCFS appealed this decision to the Federal Supreme Court in Moscow.
In a general context in which fundamental freedoms have strongly deteriorated in the Russian Federation and the federal authorities have hardened their position towards independent civil society, the Observatory calls upon the Russian Supreme Court to allow RCFS to continue its work unhindered by overruling this decision to close it down, which only aims at muzzling its freedom of expression.
The Observatory also urges the Russian authorities to put an end to any act of harassment against human rights defenders, as well as to revise their legislation so as to conform with international and regional standards relative to freedoms of association and expression, and to guarantee, in any circumstances, the independence of the judiciary.
Finally, the Observatory calls the Russian authorities to conform in any circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular its article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or 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”.
For further information, please contact:
OMCT : Delphine Reculeau, + 00 41 22 809 49 39
FIDH : Gael Grilhot, + 00 33 1 43 55 25 18
[1] Mr. Dmitrievski, who was also editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pravozaschita, a joint publication of RCFS and the Nizny-Novgorod Society for Human Rights (NNSHR), was sentenced on February 3, 2006 to a two-year suspended prison sentence and to a four-year probation period, following the publication of statements by two Chechen separatist leaders, in which they called for a peaceful end to the Russian - Chechen conflict.