Human rights in Russia

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According to the current Ombudsman of Russia, Vladimir Lukin,^[1] despite certain positive changes, the situation with human rights in Russia in 2005 remained unsatisfactory. Troubles include those in socially-economic sphere, corruption and cases of inhumane treatment by police,^[2][3] problems of inefficiency in the judiciary system^[4] and state of vulnerable social groups (children,^[5][6] pensioners, military, prisoners and patients of psychiatric clinics) and potentially dangerous situation in Chechnya. Positive social development includes rising accessibility of global media and information resources, improvement of conditions in investigation cells, rise of the role of juries, rise of popularity of certain civilian initiatives, more just conditions of achieving Russian citizenship.^[7]

Violations of human rights in Russia^[8] include many cases of torture of persons in custody by police,^[2][3] dedovshchina in Russian Army, neglect and cruelty in Russian orphanages,^[6] violations of children's rights ^[5]. Situation in Chechnya remains uneasy and potentially dangerous; the most complex and painful problem is finding more than 2700 abducted, forcifully held and detained people; along with that, in recent years the major stream of complaints shifts to social troubles from violations of right for life. ^[9]

Since 1992 at least 44 journalists were killed.^[10] Some cases caused special concern of organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International: namely, closure of Russian-Chechen Friendship Society,^[11] several cases of attacks of local authorities on demonstrators,^[12] murders of journalists and lawmakers: Anna Politkovskaya,^[13] Yuri Schekochikhin,^[14] Galina Starovoitova,^[15] Sergei Yushenkov^[16].

Contents 1 Problems of justice and penal system 2 Torture and abuse 3 Crime 4 Politically-motivated prosecutions 5 Political murders 6 Situation in Chechnya 7 Governmental organizations 8 Freedom of religion 9 Non-governmental organizations 10 Efficiency of democratic institutions 11 Freedom of the press 12 Ethnic minorities 13 Human rights and psychiatric institutions 14 Disabled and children rights 15 Footnotes 16 See also 17 External links 18 Further reading 18.1 Situation in general 18.2 FSB, terror, and human rights 18.3 Human rights violations in Chechnya

[edit] Problems of justice and penal system

The judiciary is a subject to manipulation by political authorities according to Amnesty International.^[8].^[4] According to Constitution of Russia, top judges are appointed by the Federation Council, following nomination by the President of Russia. Anna Politkovskaya described in her book Putin's Russia stories of judges who did not follow "orders from the above" and were assaulted or removed from their positions^[17] Former judge Olga Kudeshkina wrote an open letter in 2005 in which she criticized chairman of Moscow city court O. Egorova for "recommending judges to make right decisions" which allegedly caused more than 80 judges in Moscow to retire in the period from 2002 to 2005.^[18] There are large case backlogs and trial delays^{[citation needed]}.

Lengthy pretrial detention remains a serious problem. With the prison population rate of 532 per 100,000 population, Russia is tied with Bermuda (UK) and Belarus, second to the United States. Prison conditions fall well below international standards^{[citation needed]}. Over 100,000 inmates have tuberculosis.^[2] Human rights groups estimate that about 11,000 inmates and prison detainees die annually, most because of overcrowding, disease, and lack of medical care^{[citation needed]}.

In 2001, President Boris Yeltsin pronounced a moratorium on the death penalty. However, Russian Government still violates many promises they made upon entering the Council of Europe.^[4] Citizens who appeal to European Court of Human Rights are often prosecuted by Russian authorities, according to the allegations of Politkovskaya^[19]

[edit] Torture and abuse

Arrested suspects are sometimes tortured to extort false confessions.^[2][3] There are reports of beating and torturing of inmates and detainees by law enforcement and correctional officials. A popular method is called Phone Call to Putin.^[20][2][3] In 2000, human rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov estimated that 50% of prisoners with whom he spoke claimed to have been tortured. In the most extreme cases, hundreds of innocent people from the street were arbitrary arrested, beaten, tortured, and raped by special police forces. Such incidents took place not only in Chechnya, but also in Russian towns of Blagoveshensk, Bezetsk, Nefteyugansk, and others^[21][22][23] Torture and humiliation are also widespread in Russian army where they known as dedovshchina.^[24] Many young men are killed or commit suicide every year because of it.^[25] Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia works to protect rights of young soldiers. There are also credible reports that FSB use drugs to erase memory of people who had access to secret information^[26]

[edit] Crime

In the 1990s, the growth of organized crime (see Russian mafia and Russian oligarchs) and the fragmentation of law enforcement agencies in Russia coincided with a sharp rise in violence against business figures, administrative and state officials, and other public figures.^[27] President Vladimir Putin inherited these problems when he took office, and during his election campaign in 2000, the new president won popular support by stressing the need to restore law and order and to bring rule of law to Russia as the only way of restoring confidence in the country's economy.^[28]

However, criminal groups currently remain heavily involved the corruption of state and public officials. The Russian homicide rate doubled during the 1990s, and remains high to this day.^[29] For the first five years since 2000, the murder rate is 10.6% higher than the average for 1992 to 1999. Robberies, are up by 38.2% and drug-related crimes are higher by 71.7%.^[30]

[edit] Politically-motivated prosecutions

An few but increasing number of prominent scientists are accused in espionage and illegal technology exports by FSB during the last decade: researcher Igor Sutyagin,^[31] physicist Valentin Danilov,^[32] physical chemist Oleg Korobeinichev,^[33] academician Oskar Kaibyshev,^[34] and physicist Yury Ryzhov.^[35] Some other widely covered cases of political prosecution include investigator Mikhail Trepashkin,^[36] and journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov,^[37] who have been convicted solely for his writings, just as Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel. All these people are either under arrest or serve long jail sentences. Human rights groups also identified Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a political prisoner.

Ecologist and journalist Alexander Nikitin, who worked with Bellona Foundation, was accused in espionage. He published material exposing hazards posed by the Russian Navy's nuclear fleet. He was acquitted in 1999 after spending several years in prison (his case was sent for re-investigation 13 times while he remained in prison). Other cases of prosecution are the cases of investigative journalist and ecologist Grigory Pasko,^[38][39] Vladimir Petrenko who described danger posed by military chemical warfare stockpiles, and Nikolay Shchur, chairman of the Snezhinskiy Ecological Fund^[40]

Other arrested people include Viktor Orekhov, a former KGB officer who assisted Soviet dissidents, Vladimir Kazantsev who disclosed illegal purchases of eavesdropping devices from foreign firms, and Vil Mirzayanov who had written that Russia was working on a nerve gas weapon^[40]

According to Anna Politkovskaya, most of the "Islamic terrorism cases" were fabricated by the government, and the confessions have been obtained through the torture of innocent suspects. "The plight of those sentenced for Islamic terrorism today is the same as that of the political prisoners of the Gulag Archipelago... Russia continues to be infected by Stalinism", she said.^[41].

Political dissidents from the former Soviet republics, such as authoritarian Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, are often arrested by FSB and extradited to these countries for prosecution, despite to protests from international human rights organizations.^[42][43] Special services of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaidjan also kidnap people at the Russian territory, with the implicit approval of FSB^[44]

Many people have been also illegally arrested and imprisoned to prevent them from demonstrations during G8 Summit in 2006.^[45]

[edit] Political murders

See also: List of journalists killed in Russia

Some Russian opposition lawmakers and investigative journalists are suspected to be assassinated while investigating corruption and alleged crimes conducted by state authorities or FSB: Sergei Yushenkov, ‎Yuri Shchekochikhin, Alexander Litvinenko, Galina Starovoitova, Anna Politkovskaya, Paul Klebnikov.^[14][16]

According to Sergey Kovalev, the government kills the citizens without any hesitation. He provided the following examples: murdering of hostages by the poison gas during Moscow theater hostage crisis; burning school children alive by spetsnaz soldiers who used RPO flamethrowers during Beslan school hostage crisis; crimes committed by death squads in Chechnya;^[46] and assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.^[47]

[edit] Situation in Chechnya

The Russian Government's policies in Chechnya are a cause for international concern.^[48][49] It has been reported that Russian military forces have abducted, tortured, and killed numerous civilians in Chechnya[1], but Chechen separatists have also committed abuses [2], such as abducting people for ransom [3], or murders and rapes against the Russian population in the early 1990s (in Russian). Human rights groups are very critical of cases of Chechens disappearing in the custody of Russian officials. Systematic illegal arrests and torture conducted by the armed forces under the command of Ramzan Kadyrov and Federal Ministry of Interior have also been reported.[4]. There are reports about repressions, information blockade, and atmosphere of fear and despair in Chechnya [5].

A number of journalists were killed in Chechnya or supposedly for reporting on the conflict. List of names includes less and more famous: Cynthia Elbaum, Vladimir Zhitarenko, Nina Yefimova, Jochen Piest, Farkhad Kerimov, Natalya Alyakina, Shamkhan Kagirov, Viktor Pimenov, Nadezhda Chaikova, Supian Ependiyev, Ramzan Mezhidov and Shamil Gigayev, Vladimir Yatsina, Aleksandr Yefremov, Roddy Scott, Paul Klebnikov, Magomedzagid Varisov, Anna Politkovskaya [6] [7].

[edit] Governmental organizations

Efforts to institutionalize official human rights bodies have been mixed. In 1996, human rights activist Sergey Kovalev resigned as chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission to protest the government's record, particularly the war in Chechnya. Parliament in 1997 passed a law establishing a "human rights ombudsman," a position that is provided for in Russia's constitution and is required of members of the Council of Europe, to which Russia was admitted in February 1996. The Duma finally selected Duma deputy Oleg Mironov in May 1998. A member of the Communist Party, Mironov resigned from both the Party and the Duma after the vote, citing the law's stipulation that the Ombudsman be nonpartisan. Because of his party affiliation, and because Mironov had no evident expertise in the field of human rights, his appointment was widely criticized at the time by human rights activists. International human rights groups operate freely in Russia, although the government has hindered the movements and access to information of some individuals investigating the war in Chechnya^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Freedom of religion

The Constitution of Russian Federation provides for freedom of religion and the equality of all religions before the law as well as the separation of church and state. The influx of missionaries over the past several years has led to pressure by groups in Russia, specifically nationalists and the Russian Orthodox Church, to limit the activities of these "nontraditional" religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Church. In response, the Duma passed a new, restrictive, and potentially discriminatory law in October 1997. The law is very complex, with many ambiguous and contradictory provisions. The law's most controversial provisions separates religious "groups" and "organizations" and introduce a 15-year rule, which allows groups that have existed for 15 years or longer to obtain accredited status. According to Russian dissident priest Gleb Yakunin, new religion law "heavily favors the Russian Orthodox Church at the expense of all other religions, including Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.", and it is "a step backward in Russia's process of democratization" [8]. Anna Politkovskaya described cases of prosecution and murders of Muslims by Russian secret services^[50][51]

Commissioner of Council of Europe Alvaro Gil-Robles said in his report on his visits in Russian Federation in 2004, "I have been impressed by the tremendous religious revival enjoyed by all faiths in Russia since the end of the 1980s and all the more so as this has generally been in an atmosphere of concord. Article 52 of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of conscience and religion is generally respected. Indeed, this process is actively supported at all levels of the State. While the Constitution stipulates the strict separation of State and religion, the federal and regional authorities provide funding and material assistance to the different communities to foster the parallel development of religion and tolerance", although mentioning also some problems such as discrimination of Jehovah's witnesses and that "Catholics are not always heeded as well as the other religions by federal and local authorities".^[52]

[edit] Non-governmental organizations

The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a bill by 370-18 requiring local branches of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to reregister as Russian organizations subject to Russian jurisdiction, and thus stricter financial and legal restrictions. The bill gives Russian officials oversight of local finances and activities. The bill has been highly criticized by Human Rights Watch, Memorial organization [9], and the nonprofit think tank Indem for its possible effects on international monitoring of the status of human rights in Russia. [10] [11] In October 2006 activities of many foreign nongovernmental organizations have been suspended using this law, officials said that "the suspensions resulted simply from the failure of private groups to meet the law's requirements, not from a political decision on the part of the state. The groups would be allowed to resume work once their registrations are completed"^[53] Current status of these organizations is unknown.

[edit] Efficiency of democratic institutions

According to Sergey Kovalev, former Ombudsman and a member of Moscow Helsinki Group, there were fundamental problems with human rights in Russia in 2006.^[47]. He says that many basic norms of the Constitution of Russia do not work. There is no real separation of powers between the government and Duma, and no independent judiciary. One can only dream about free and open elections. Authorities lie, and although there's no official governmental agency of censorship, sufficiently harsh censorship actually exists, according to Kovalev.^[47]

In 2006 the Economist composed a democracy rating, putting Russia at 102nd place among 167 countries, and defining it as a "hybrid regime" that "apparently slides in an authoritarian direction". However, "there is no consensus on how to measure democracy", and the scoring system "is not without problems".^[54]

[edit] Freedom of the press

Reporters Without Borders put Russia at 147th place of the World Press Freedom Index (in the list of 168 countries)^[55] According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, since 1992 forty-two journalists have been killed in Russia for their professional activity. Thirty have been killed during President Boris Yeltsin's reign, and the rest were killed under current president Vladimir Putin [12]. According to Glasnost Defence Foundation, there were 9 cases of death of journalists in 2006, as well as 59 attacked journalists, and 12 attacks on editorial offices. [13]. In 2005, the list of all cases includes 7 deaths, 63 attacks, 12 attacks on editorial offices, 23 facts of censorship, 42 criminal prosecutions, 11 illegal layoffs, 47 cases of detention by militsiya, 382 lawsuits, 233 cases of obstruction, 23 closings of editorial offices, 10 evictions, 28 confiscations of printed production, 23 cases of stopping broadcasting, 38 refusals to distribute or print production, 25 acts of intimidation, and 344 other violations of Russian journalist's rights [14].

Most recently, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, famous for her criticisms of President Vladimir Putin, Russia's actions in Chechnya, and the pro-Kremlin Chechyan government, was assassinated in Moscow. Former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky believes that murders of writers Yuri Shchekochikhin (author of "Slaves of KGB" [15]), Anna Politkovskaya, and Aleksander Litvinenko show that FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations [16] which were conducted in the past by Thirteenth KGB Department.^[56]

[edit] Ethnic minorities

Some observers believe that there is a growing intolerance and racist violence in Russia.^[57][58] According to Sova Information Centre, 44 people were murdered and close to 500 assaulted on racial grounds in 2006 [17]. According to official sources, there are 150 "extremist groups" with over 5000 members in Russia.^[59]

According to nationwide opinion poll carried by VCIOM in 2006, 44% of respondents consider Russia "a common house of many nations" where all must have equal rights, 36% think that "Russians should have more rights since they constitute the majority of the population", 15% think "Russia must be the state of Russian people". However the question is also what exactly does the term "Russian" denote. For 39% of respondents Russians are all who grew and were brought up in Russia's traditions; for 23% Russians are those who works for the good of Russia; 15% respondents think that only Russians by blood may be called Russians; for 12% Russians are all for who Russian language is native, for 7% Russians are adepts of Russian Christian Orthodox tradition.^[60]

In 2006 Vladimir Putin said that is necessary to "protect the interests of native population of Russia" considering the situation at the wholesale and retail markets .^[61]

There was a short campaign against alleged criminal Georgian-owned businesses in 2006, as a part of 2006 Georgian-Russian espionage controversy.

Almost 300,000 people were fined for immigration violations in Moscow alone in 2005. The numbers are many times higher in 2006, according to NGO Civil Assistance.^{[citation needed][62]}

[edit] Human rights and psychiatric institutions

There are numerous cases when people "inconvenient" for Russian authorities are imprisoned in psychiatric institutions during last years.^[63][64][65]

Little has changed in Moscow Serbsky Institute where many prominent Sovied dissidents were labeled as having sluggishly progressing schizophrenia and incarcerated. This Institute conducts more than 2,500 court-ordered evaluations per year. When war criminal Yuri Budanov was tested there in 2002, the panel conducting the inquiry was led by Tamara Pechernikova, who condemned poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya in past. Budanov was found not guilty by reason of "temporary insanity". Ater public outrage, he was found sane by another panel that included Georgi Morozov, the former Serbsky director who declared many dissidents insane in the 1970s and 1980s.^[66] Serbsky Institute also made an expertise of mass poisoning of hundreds of Chechen school children by an unknown chemical substance of strong and prolonged action, which made them completely incapabale for many months.^[67] Panel found that the disease was caused simply the "psycho-emotional tension".^[68][69]

[edit] Disabled and children rights

Currently, the estimated orphan population in Russia is 2 million and the street children is 4 million^[70] According to an earlier Human Rights Watch report in 1998,^[6] "Russian children are abandoned to the state at a rate of 113,000 a year for the past two years, up dramatically from 67,286 in 1992." "Of a total of more than 600,000 children classified as being “without parental care,” as many as one-third reside in institutions, while the rest are placed with a variety of guardians." "From the moment the state assumes their care, orphans in Russia—of whom 95 percent still have a living parent—are exposed to shocking levels of cruelty and neglect." Once officially labelled as retarded, Russian orphans are "warehoused for life in psychoneurological internaty. In addition to receiving little to no education in such internaty, these orphans may be restrained in cloth sacks, tethered by a limb to furniture, denied stimulation, and sometimes left to lie half-naked in their own filth. Bedridden children aged five to seventeen are confined to understaffed lying-down rooms as in the baby houses, and in some cases are neglected to the point of death." Life and death of disabled children in the State institutions was described by writer Ruben Galiego.^[71][72] Still, the recent adoption law made it more difficult to adopt Russian children from abroad.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

• Human rights in the Soviet Union
• Human rights in Europe
• Politics of Russia
• International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
• Moscow Helsinki Group
• International human rights instruments

[edit] External links

• SOVA Information Center
• Human Rights Watch: Russia (overview)
• Human Rights Watch: Russia (specific issues)
• List of links related to Human Rights in Russia
• Press releases on human rights in Russia
• Attacks on freedom of expression in Russia - IFEX
• IPI watch list
• Human rights watch: Widespread torture in the Chechen Republic
• Stigma and Discrimination against HIV-Positive Mothers and their Children in Russia
• Religious discrimination
• "HIV/AIDS and Human Rights in Russia" - UN Chronicle
• Jewish Human Rights Web-Site
• World Prison Population List 2005
• Human Rights, Civil Society, and Democratic Governance in Russia: Current Situation and Prospects for the Future - by Barry Lowenkron, US Department of State, February 8, 2006
• Russia: High-Profile Killings, Attempted Killings In The Post-Soviet Period, Radio Free Europe, October 19, 2006

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Situation in general

• David Satter. Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. Yale University Press. 2003. ISBN 0-300-09892-8.
• Andrew Meier. Black Earth: A Journey through Russia After the Fall. W. W. Norton & Company. 2005. ISBN 0-393-32641-1
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2004) Putin's Russia
• Jonathan Weiler. Human Rights in Russia: A Darker Side of Reform. Lynne Rienner Publishers 2004. ISBN 1-58826-279-0 [18]
• Archana Pyati. The New Dissidents: Human Rights Defenders and Counterterrorism in Russia. Human Rights First. 2005. ISBN 0-9753150-0-5 Link to internet version and Information about author
• Emma Gilligan. Defending Human Rights in Russia: Sergei Kovalyov, Dissident and Human Rights Commissioner, 1969-96 (BASEES/Curzon Series on Russian & East European Studies) RoutledgeCurzon. 2003. ISBN 0-415-32369-X Link to internet version
• Pamela A. Jordan. Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State, And Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era 2006. ISBN 0-7748-1163-3.

[edit] FSB, terror, and human rights

• Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia--Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.
• Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia : Terror from within. 2002. ISBN 1-56171-938-2

[edit] Human rights violations in Chechnya

• Khassan Baiev, Ruth Daniloff. The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. Walker & Company. 2004. ISBN 0-8027-1404-8.
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Dirty War: A Russian reporter in Chechnya
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya

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