The report was presented to Amnesty International Norway, the Norwegian Helsinki Committe, the Human Rights House Foundation and a group of Norwegian lawyers by Svetlana Gannushkina, one of memorial’s leading activists. In addition to giving an updated overview of the human rights situation in the region, Memorial’s report goes into detail on the increased number of killings and abductions, the women’s rights situation and the serving conditions for Chechens imprisoned in Russian prisons.
Victims and witnesses at risk
-The report describes a growing safety problem in the region. Memorial has experienced a decrease in the number of people coming to report on violations they have either suffered themselves, or witnessed. The same goes for reporting such crimes to law enforcers. Ever more often, people decide against reporting human rights violations, out of fear of persecution by the authorities.
Increased number of abductions and killlings
The report elaborates that while it is particularly the number of abductions that has grown in the Chechen Republic, in Ingushetia, it is the number of killings that has increased most.The circumstances of the abductions in the Chechen Republic indicate that representatives of law enforcement bodies were involved in these crimes. The report also describes the popular practice of setting fire to the houses of relatives of militias opposing the authorities and of supporters of these authorities.
The rights of women
The rights of women are also constantly violated in the Chechen Republic. The women are forced to wear headscarves and silently obey to their husbands, fathers and brothers. Otherwise they often suffer various kinds of ‘punishment’ and persecution, with the authorities’ blessing. The government of the Republic of the Chechen Republic propagandizes assault on women by their relatives and husbands. An extract from an interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Chechen Republic, to the national newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda can exemplify this attitude.
-The woman is a property. The man is the owner
Kadyrov said: "I have the right to critisize my wife. My wife does not have the right to criticise me. The Chechen wife is a housewife. The woman should know her place. […] The woman is a property while the man is the owner. In the Chechen Republic, if the woman misbehaves, her husband, father and brother are responsible. According to our tradition, if a woman is unfaithful, her relatives kill her. Sometimes a brother kills a sister or a husband kills a wife. Men are imprisoned because of this […]. Being the President, I cannot let people kill each other. So don’t let them (women) wear shorts."
The report concludes that the situation in North Caucasus has not changed for the better in the last year and a half. On the contrary, the region "becomes more and more heterogeneous and the situation in each of its republics is getting increasingly unstable and dangerous for different groups of residents.
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