The regular Annual General Meeting of the International Helsinki Federation, which gathers 42 members of the OSCE countries, was held in Moscow from 11 to 14 November, hosted by the Moscow Helsinki Group. The topic of discussion was the state of human rights in the Chechen Republic, where the most serious violations of human rights and freedoms were recorded. The participants in the debate pointed at the unacceptable suffering of civilians, caused primarily by actions undertaken by the Army of the Russian Federation, and police and secret services based in Moscow, but also by the acts of the rebels. Numerous people were reported to have been missing, or murdered and tortured. Pursuant to the Final Helsinki Act, signed in 1975, it was stated that the issue of human rights in the Chechen Republic could not be treated as an internal issue of the Russian Federation. The situation in the Chechen Republic calls for larger involvement of the OSCE and all of its members.

The General Meeting of the International Helsinki Federation condemned the non-democratic regime in Byelorussia, and the frequent cases of violations of human rights in the country by the President Lukashenko’s regime. It was particularly emphasised that the recent parliamentary elections in the country, and the referendum on extension of the presidential mandate, were non-democratic and in contravention of international standards for fair and proper elections.

In the case of Ukraine too, it was stated that the first round of presidential elections was conducted in unreliable and non-democratic manner.

The assembly sharply condemned the persecution of the human rights activist in Uzbekistan and the deprivation of the people of the right to association, the consequence of which was that the existing human rights non-governmental organisations have been practically outlawed. 

During the debate, it was stressed that racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance, including anti-Islamic feelings in some of the West European countries, have been mounting.

The attitude of the USA towards the International Criminal Tribunal was condemned, as well as the pressure exerted on some countries to accept the bilateral agreements with the USA on non-extradition of their citizens to this Tribunal.

The General Meeting has also elected the new management of the International Helsinki Federation for the next two years. The new President is Ulrich Fischer from Germany, a longstanding expert in human rights, who was a member of and later worked for the German Bundestag, and Vice President is Srdjan Dizdarevic, the founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and President of the Managing Board of the Human Rights House of Sarajevo. In the explanation of the proposal for Dizdarevic as candidate for this position it was said, among else, that “he is a consistent and principled champion of human rights, who has bravely been opposing the violations of human rights in his country in the previous period, irrespective of whether the violations have been perpetrated by the domestic nationalistic authorities or the international community”.
 
A five-member Executive Committee was also elected including: Holly Cartner (USA), Bjoern Engesland (Norway), Vasilika Hysi (Albania), Krassimir Kanev (Bulgaria) and Ferenc Köszeg (Hungary).

The Armenian Helsinki Association and the Armenian Helsinki Committee as well as the Helsinki Human Rights Union Ukraine were accepted as Cooperating Committees of the IHF. 

The IHF presented its “2004 IHF Recognition Award” to the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship. The award was accepted by Oksana Chelysheva and Mikhail Ezhiev. The IHF’s citation for the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship stated: “Your work on behalf of victims and to promote tolerance and peace reflects the transcendent values of our civilization. It evokes feelings of solidarity and sympathy more powerful than hatred, fear and revenge”.

Previous recipients of the award include: Yuri Schmidt, Talib Yakubov, Catherine Fitzpatrick and Memorial, Nazran.