Alvaro Hill-Robles The Commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles (right), has compared the Russian Federation to a train full of passengers that don’t know where they are going. On 31st July he met Russian human rights activists.  (11-AUG-05)

On the 31st of July a meeting of Russian human rights activists and Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, the commissioner for human rights of the European Council took place. They discussed Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles’s report which he presented on 20th of April to the Strasburg Committee of Ministers and Assembly of the European Council about human rights in the Russian Federation. Moscow Helsinki Group, human rights Center “Memorial”, Movement “For Human Rights”, human rights Center “Demos”, The Union of the Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers, Fund “The Protection of Publicity”, and Fund “Social Partnership” took part in this discussion.

Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles said that during the preparation of his report he had dealt with more then 100 human rights organizations within the Russian Federation. Alvaro Gil-Robles underlined that there is a very big difference between what the Russian government and Russian human rights organizations present about the situation of observance the human rights in the Russian Federation. Of course since the soviet period the situation of human rights has changed but during last several years he hasn’t noticed any developments in this field of the judicial system. Alvaro Gil-Robles sees not only scandalous lawlessness with every step in Russia; he also sees the helplessness of the people when facing the authorities. The Commissioner for human rights of the European Council has compared the Russian Federation to a train full of passengers who don’t know where they are going.

Russian human rights activists agreed with the report of Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles but their reports were harsher about the situation in the Russian Federation. Among the themes of discussion in this meeting were: changes in the judicial system, the activities of law-enforcement agencies and penal system reforms, freedom of speech, observance of human rights and the situation in the Chechen Republic.

Sergey Pashin, professor at the Moscow Institute of Economics, Politics and Law underlined that over the past several years there has been no development of the judicial system in the Russian Federation due to the oppression of judges and corruption.

Borschev ValeryParticipants gave a lot of attention to the discussion about law-enforcement activities and penal system reforms. Valery Borschev said that the general idea of the discussion was: “We won’t improve and organize the fair sustainable international standards-driven penal system in the Russian Federation if civil control isn’t installed”.

Human rights Center “Memorial” ascertained that the situation in the Chechen Republic remains difficult. There was a noticeable reduction of the number of civilian deaths, but it occurred only because of the suspension of military operations in the Chechen Republic. At the same time federal and local structures didn’t stop the practice of kidnapping, torture, murder and other violations of human rights. The absolute majority of those guilty of committing such crimes remain unpunished. Criminal investigations were opened with delay or not opened at all. The analysis of the police investigations, which was led by human rights activists and the materials of European Court showed the outrageous unscrupulousness of the Prosecutor. During the last two years the cases of persecution of people who had given declarations to the European Court were distributed.

In conclusion, Alvaro Gil-Robles proposed that human rights activists prepare advice and give it to Ella Pamfilova. She is the chairperson of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the support of the development of institutes of civil society and human rights, who can discuss it with Russian authorities.

Source: http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2005/08/m43862.htm; http://www.mhg.ru/news/5D996AB