the Russian Federation is considered to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and activists to work in, but still the practice of UDI (Norwegian Directorate of Immigration) and UNE (Immigration Appeals Board) shows that they do not receive protection in Norway either. The Council of Europe rapporteurs on the human rights situation in the North Caucasus and for the protection of human rights defenders are also concerned and have approached to the Norwegian authorities.
In a resolution from 12 August this year where two well-known human rights defenders from Ingushetia did not get asylum in Norway, UNE writes that “… there is no evidence or information that human rights activists in general have been especially vulnerable in Ingushetiya … and that human rights defenders in Ingushetia are not persecuted in the sense of the 1951 Convention on a general basis.”
This decision also turned heads in Europe. Dick Marty, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the North Caucasus, and Holger Haibach, the Rapporteur for the protection of human rights defenders, have now turned to the Norwegian authorities to express their strong concern over Norway’s judgement of the situation.
Download their letter to the Norwegian government.
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