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Moscow Helsinki Group will hold a conference “Formation of system of public control in Russia” as a part of the project “Prevention of tortures through legal support, education and protection”.
Experts, members of regional Supervising Committees on public control over places of forced imprisonment from 40 regions of Russia, representatives of federal government bodies will participate at the conference.
The participants will discuss actual problems of public control and rights protection of the citizens in the places of forced imprisonment.

Reporters without Borders issued an “atlas of freedom of the press and media in the Russian Federation.”

Human Rights Watch insists that Russian authorities should take urgent steps to ensure the safety of activists from the human rights group Memorial and investigate suspicious activities that may threaten their safety.

Russian human rights activists discussed their concerns about the situation in the North Caucasus where torture, kidnappings, illegal prisons and extrajudicial executions are become integral elements.

Though it wasn’t especially bloody in comparison to what has happened in the Caucasus in older and recent times, last year’s five-day war between Georgia and the Russian Federation may be ranked alongside much bigger conflicts due to its consequences for the Caucasus and the Russian Federation.

Less than a month after the murder of one of Chechnya’s most prominent rights activists Natalya Estemirova two more human rights workers have been murdered in the Chechen Republic under similar circumstances.

A meeting devoted to the 20th anniversary of Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia and a round table on the problems of rights of the citizens adjudged to be legally incapable will be hold within the Congress of Psychiatric Associations of Eastern Europe and Balkans.

The report highlights numerous cases of human rights violations in the context of anti-terrorism operations as well as illegal acts committed under the veil of anti-terrorism actions.

Neither UN human rights experts nor Memorial members believe Russian authorities will investigate the killing of Natalia Estemirova effectively and impartially and bring perpetrators to justice. The office of the Russian human rights group Memorial is being closed
because of concern for the staff’s safety. For some, it removes the last layer of protection for ordinary Chechens.