The Russian Federation and Human Rights
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410802600101 |
| Subject Matter | Column |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 26/1, 3–7, 2008.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 3
COLUMN*
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
AND HUMAN RIGHTS
How Should the Council of Europe Deal with
the Problems Posed by Its Largest Member State?
Chechnya – situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus – remains the only place
in Europe where people disappear or are ki lled on a d aily basis as a result of armed
conict. Torture, illegal detent ion a nd ex tra-judicial executions are continuously
taking place. Most cases are not eectively investigated by the authorities and the
perpetrators are very rarely found, let alone convicted. ese serious human rights
violations a re occurring in the Russian Federation, the largest Member State of the
Council of Europe.
e ratication of the Europe an Convention of Human Rights provided the
Russians with the opportunity to le an individual complaint with the Court in
Strasbourg. I ncreasingly, individuals cl aiming to have fa llen victim to the violations
in Chechnya are indeed nding their way to the Cour t. Reports of the Parliamentar y
Assembly of the Counci l of Europe1 and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)2
show t hat this is not without r isk. In several cases ind ividuals usi ng their right to
complain have fal len victi m to harassment, have disappea red or even been killed .
Since the rst judgements of t he European Court of Human R ights in 2005,3 the
number of cases in which the Court has ruled against Russia for grave violations of the
European Convention of Human Rig hts (ECHR) in Chechnya, has increased rapidly.
ese cases pa int an alarming picture of gross human right v iolations committe d
both by t he Russian Federation and by rebel groups in Chech nya. To date t he Court
ruled that i n 29 cases Russia violated funda mental provisions such as the right to l ife
(Article 2), the prohibition against inhuma n treatment (Article 3) and the lack of an
eective remedy (Article 13). Apart from this it should be mentioned that since 5 May
* Nicola Jägers and Le o Zwaak are both members of t he editorial boa rd of the NQHR.
1 See, inter alia , Doc. 10774, Rep ort of Rappor teur Rudolph Bi ndig (Commission Legal Aa irs and
Human Rights) Human Rights Violations in the C hechen Republic: the Committee of Min isters’
Responsibi lity vis-à-vis the A ssembly’s Concerns, 21 Dec ember 2005, para. 2 .2.3.
2 See the public statement of Amnesty Internat ional, ‘Russian Federation: Europ ean Court of Human
Rights Rul ings on Bitiyeva and X v. Russia’, 21 June 2007, AI Index EU R 46/0272007.
3 ECrtHR, Khashiye v an d Ak ayeva vs Russia, 24 February 2005, Applicat ion Nos 57942 /00 a nd
57945/00; and ECrtHR Isay eva, Yusupova and Bazayeva vs Ru ssia, 24 Febru ary 2005, Application
Nos 57947/00, 57948/00 and 57949/0 0.
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