27/10/15: Human rights defenders under pressure: Challenges in litigating human rights violations in the former Soviet Union

Posted onAuthorHumanRightsAPPG

The All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG) was pleased to attend this event hosted by the Law Society and European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC).

The speakers were:

  • Khalid Bagirov, lawyer and chairman of Centre for the Development of Law, Azerbaijan. (KB)
  • Joanna Evans, legal director, EHRAC. (JE)
  • Stephania Kulayeva, head, Memorial Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC Memorial). (SK)
  • Olga Sadovskaya, vice-chairperson, INGO “Committee Against Torture”, Nizhny Novgorod. (OS)

The main points raised were:

  • NGO freedom has been in decline in Russia since 2012. The recent “foreign agents” law, which restricts funding from overseas to domestic NGOs, combined with a mass media campaign, has worked to discredit civil society. (OS)
  • New laws are being drafted in Russia to shrink civil society space even further. This will have profound impacts on other countries in the region. (OS)
  • The penalties following on from being recognised as a “foreign agent” are heavy. Some NGOs cannot afford to continue operating and have been forced to shut down. (SK)
  • In Azerbaijan, there are few human rights defenders and lawyers left, as most have fled the country or been imprisoned. (KB)
  • Khalid has faced judicial harassment, recently being disbarred for his work defending prominent human rights defenders including Leyla Yunus, Arif Yunusov and Rasul Jafarov. (KB)
  • The international community should take stronger action, rather than simply expressing concerns at repressive moves by states in the region. (KB)
  • The international community should pressure the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers to use proceedings set out in paragraph 4 of Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The article allows the Court to determine whether a Party to a case has failed to fulfil its obligation to abide by the final judgment of the Court. (JE)
  • The UK Government should not scrap the Human Rights Act, as this will set a bad example to post-Soviet countries.

The PHRG will continue to monitor the situation for human rights defenders in Russia and post-Soviet Union counties closely, raising our concerns where possible.