Human Rights in the North Caucasus: what follow-up to Resolution 1738 (2010)?
Reply to Recommendation
| Doc. 14664
| 15 November 2018
- Author(s):
- Committee of Ministers
- Origin
- Adopted at the 1329th meeting
of the Ministers’ Deputies (14 November 2018). 2019 - First part-session
- Reply to Recommendation
- : Recommendation 2099
(2017)
1 The Committee of Ministers informs the
Parliamentary Assembly that the following reply was adopted by a
majority as provided by Article 20 (d) of the Statute.
2 The Committee of Ministers has carefully considered Parliamentary
Assembly
Recommendation
2099 (2017) on “Human Rights in the North Caucasus: what
follow-up to
Resolution
1738 (2010)?”. It continues to pay particular attention
to the respect of the Council of Europe standards of democracy,
human rights and the rule of law in the North Caucasus, including
in the Chechen Republic and Dagestan and it is open to consider any
request for assistance to the North Caucasus that the Russian authorities
might wish to make.
3 The Committee of Ministers recalls that it has encouraged
the Russian authorities to continue their co-operation with the
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment and to authorise the publication
of all the CPT’s reports. The Committee of Ministers has followed with
concern the reports of abductions, extra-judicial killings, torture
and ill-treatment of LGBTI individuals in Chechnya as well as the
denial, trivilisation and condoning by the Chechen authorities of
the attacks. This was discussed at the Ministerial Session in Nicosia
in May 2017 and on other occasions. The Government of the Russian
Federation has provided the Committee with information about the
domestic investigation into these allegations. The Committee underlines
the importance of prompt, effective and thorough investigations,
so that anyone found guilty of or complicit in such crimes is brought
to justice, and continues to follow the situation.
4 The Committee is currently supervising under the enhanced
procedure the execution of a group of 255 cases in which the European
Court of Human Rights found violations of the European Convention
on Human Rights, mostly relating to the actions of Russian security
forces during anti-terrorist operations, in Chechnya between 1999
and 2006, although some cases relate to abductions of individuals
by the security forces after 2006 (Khashiyev
and Akayeva group of cases). In response to the violations,
the Russian authorities have provided information on awareness-raising
and training measures for the military and security forces and on certain
regulatory changes regarding their actions. The examination has
since 2011 concentrated on the effectiveness of the search for missing
persons and of the criminal investigations into the events (in particular to
prevent impunity as a result of rules of prescription and/or amnesty
legislation). Since 2016, developments in law and practice in these
regards have been regularly examined by the Committee of Ministers
at its human rights (DH) meetings, according to predefined time-tables,
most recently in September 2018.
;