Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

The Role of the International Community

United Nations

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considered Russia’s periodic report. The committee expressed concern over ethnic conflicts and the rising number of acts of racial discrimination. It called on Russia to take the necessary measures to protect human rights in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia, to punish perpetrators of violations of humanitarian law, to provide victims of such conflicts with adequate compensation, and to ensure the process of return under normal conditions for displaced persons. Inexplicably, the committee did not address blatant and systematic police harassment of minorities in Moscow.

The High Commissioner on Human Rights, Mary Robinson, visited Moscow in late May for an event dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While in Moscow, she met with several Russian human rights activists, including representatives of the refugee group Civic Assistance, the Memorial Human Rights Center, the Sakharov Foundation, and the Human Rights Institute.

European Union

The troika of the European Union (E.U.) expressed concern about the case of Alexander Nikitin in a February 24 demarche, stressing the importance of a fair trial. In July, British ambassador Sir Andrew Wood, representing the E.U., expressed concern during a meeting with Moscow Mayor Luzhkov about the forced closure of Médécins sans Frontières’ program for the homeless and was given guarantees that Médécins sans Frontières would be able to continue its program. During the economic and political crisis that began in August, the E.U. did not explicitly call on Russia to uphold respect for basic human rights, saying only in a declaration on September 6 that the E.U. would see continuing “reforms” as an expression of Russia’s commitment to democracy. Various European countries continued individually to fund projects by nongovernmental organizations in Russia.

The European Parliament expressed concern about the refugee situation in the Republic of Ingushetia on January 15. It commended Russia’s ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights by the Russian parliament on April 2 and encouraged Russia to proceed by abolishing the death penalty.

Council of Europe

In January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe appointed British MP Kevin McNamara as special rapporteur on the Russian religion law. Mr. McNamara subsequently expressed concern about the law in a letter to the State Duma and was planning a visit to Russia in November, having postponed plans for a visit in June at the request of the Russian government.

In June, the Parliamentary Assembly made public a report by its monitoring committee on the honoring of Council of Europe commitments. The report noted that Russia had made “undeniable progress” toward the rule of law and democracy. It praised political pluralism, democratic elections, Russia’s ratification of several human rights conventions, and the transfer of the prison system to the Ministry of Justice. The report identified various areas in which further efforts needed to be made, including ensuring freedom of movement, reform of the criminal justice and penitentiary systems, and full abolition of the death penalty. Although the report generally described the situation correctly, it failed to note significant backsliding from human rights standards over the past two years.

The special rapporteur on the Nikitin case, Dutch senator Erik Jurgens, continued to follow closely developments in the Nikitin case, expressing concern about proceedings in the case on various occasions.

United States

Under an amendment to the foreign appropriations bill for 1998, President Clinton in May reported to Congress about Russia’s religion law. The amendment envisaged withdrawing most forms of government assistance if the religion law was implemented. President Clinton reported that the Russian federal government had not implemented the law in a manner that negatively impacted on U.S. missionaries. His report also concluded that local governments have often used the new law incorrectly and improperly to justify imposing restrictions they would have imposed anyway. However, the report failed to recognize that the federal government shirked its direct responsibility to redress human rights violations imposed by local authorities. Furthermore, restrictions of freedom of conscience in the regions have become progressively more serious since the law was adopted.

In August, Human Rights Watch called on President Clinton to raise human rights issues during his summit meeting with President Boris Yeltsin, including widespread corruption in law enforcement agencies leading to torture, police harassment of ethnic minorities and domestic violence. Human Rights Watch received assurances that some of these issues were on the agenda, but President Clinton did not raise any during the summit, which was dominated by Russia’s political and financial crisis. Indeed, even in his speech to Moscow State University, President Clinton squandered an opportunity to link some of the root causes of Russia’s economic troubles—corruption and negligence—to Russia’s human rights problems.

The U.S. government raised an attack by skinheads on a U.S. marine in May with the Russian government. However, it failed to use this opportunity to raise concern publicly about the rise of widespread skinhead violence against ethnic minorities and about police harassment, with complete impunity, of ethnic minorities. The U.S. Embassy even declined to say whether it raised this in its official communique to the Russian government.

Relevant Human Rights Watch report:

Russian Federation: Ethnic Discrimination in Southern Russia , 7/98