Motion for a resolution | Doc. 13064 | 14 November 2012

Human rights in the North Caucasus: what follow-up to Resolution 1738 (2010)?

Signatories: Mr Michael McNAMARA, Ireland, SOC ; Lord Donald ANDERSON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Christian BATAILLE, France, SOC ; Mr James CLAPPISON, United Kingdom, EDG ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Renato FARINA, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Serhiy HOLOVATY, Ukraine, ALDE ; Mr Igor IVANOVSKI, ''The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia'', SOC ; Mr Roman JAKIČ, Slovenia, ALDE ; Mr Charles KENNEDY, United Kingdom, ALDE ; Mr Jean-Pierre MICHEL, France, SOC ; Mr Patrick MORIAU, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Pasquale NESSA, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Pieter OMTZIGT, Netherlands, EPP/CD ; Mr Konstantinos TRIANTAFYLLOS, Greece, SOC ; Ms Theodora TZAKRI, Greece, SOC ; Ms Kristien Van VAERENBERGH, Belgium, NR ; Mr Egidijus VAREIKIS, Lithuania, EPP/CD ; Mr Klaas de VRIES, Netherlands, SOC ; Ms Nataša VUČKOVIĆ, Serbia, SOC

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

In its unanimously adopted Resolution 1738 (2010) on legal remedies for human rights violations in the North Caucasus region, the Parliamentary Assembly observed “that the situation in the North Caucasus region, particularly in the Chechen Republic, Ingushetia and Dagestan, constitutes today the most serious and most delicate situation from the standpoint of safeguarding human rights and upholding the rule of law, in the entire geographical area covered by the Council of Europe”.

In the meantime, the situation has not improved. In Resolution 1896 (2012) on the honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation, the Assembly reiterated that “ [t]he situation in the North Caucasus, and in particular in Ingushetia and Dagestan, with serious abuses by law enforcement agents, including killings, abductions and torture, and the prevailing impunity of the perpetrators in the region, confirmed by over 150 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, remains extremely worrying and unacceptable".

The climate of impunity denounced by the Assembly continues to prevail, the execution of numerous judgments of the European Court of Human Rights remains blocked and human rights defenders are being put under increasing pressure in order to stop the flow of information. Also, even the drastic anti-terrorism measures taken by the authorities have not succeeded in stemming the violence used by increasingly radical  insurgents who themselves violate the local population’s  basic human rights such as the rights to life and health and peaceful enjoyment of their possessions.

The Assembly is therefore duty-bound to follow-up the human rights situation in the North Caucasus.