This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.
Among the rights guaranteed to citizens of Council of Europe
member States is “the right to liberty and security” as provided
by Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In Resolution 1900 (2012) on The definition of political
prisoner, the Parliamentary Assembly defined anyone whose
“detention has been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental
guarantees set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and
its Protocols” or “is the result of proceedings which were clearly
unfair and this appears to be connected with political motives of
the authorities” as a “political prisoner”.
Based on these criteria, the Memorial Human Rights Centre,
one of the Russian Federation’s most respected non-governmental
organisations, estimates that there are currently more than 300
political prisoners in the Russian Federation. They include journalists,
civil society activists, human rights advocates, participants in peaceful
demonstrations, adherents of prohibited religious groups and members
of “undesirable” organisations. Their incarceration violates not
only the Russian Federation’s general obligations under its Council
of Europe membership, but also specific rulings by the European
Court of Human Rights. According to Memorial, since 2015 the number
of political prisoners in the Russian Federation has increased six-fold.
The time has come for the Assembly to examine the growing
crisis with politically motivated imprisonments in the Russian Federation
and to institute a meaningful oversight by appointing a rapporteur
with the mandate to prepare a report on this issue.
