Raid of the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance / Further acts of harassment against its members

March 20, 2008

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in the Russian Federation.

Brief description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) about the raid against the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance.

According to the information received, on March 20, 2008, the police raided the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance and confiscated all the computers thereat. The police have also confiscated the mobile phone of Mr. Stanislaw Dmitrievskiy, a referent of the Foundation and the Executive Director of the Finland-registered RCFS. The motion to search the office of the Foundation to Promote Tolerance would have been signed by the Regional Prosecutor’s office.

On the same day, the police searched the homes of several members of the Foundation and opposition activists in Nizhny Novgorod and neighbouring Arzamas, including those of Messrs. Ilya Shamazov and Yuri Staroverov, who had been actively involved in an investigation carried out by the Foundation on war crimes and human rights violations during the war in Chechnya. The police also searched the flat of Ms. Elena Evdokimova and confiscated Mr. Staroverov’s and Ms. Evdokimova’s mobile phones.

Likewise, the flats of Mr. Evgeniy Lygin, Ms. Ekaterina Bunicheva, Mr. Igor Voronin, Mr. Dmitri Iisusov and Mr. Maxim Baganov, who are also associated with the Other Russia Coalition, were searched on the same day. When the search in Mr. Baganov’s flat was over, it became known that a criminal case has been opened under article 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Mr. Baganov was then summoned to interrogation and the police confiscated his passport. Ms. Bunicheva was injured during the search: when she refused to give her cell phone, the police pushed her to the floor and hit at the jaw.

Furthermore, the Observatory recalls that several persons who are associated with the Other Russia in Nizhny Novgorod have already been interrogated as witnesses to another criminal case on alleged counterfeit software opened in October 2007 against the Foundation to Promote Tolerance, which is chaired by Ms. Oksana Chelysheva. The prosecutors also summoned former staff people who then stopped working with the Foundation.

The Observatory expresses its deepest concern regarding these acts of harassment against the Nizhny-Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance and its members, which are further evidence of the determination of the Russian authorities to hinder the activities of human rights defenders, and recalls that the RCFS and the Nizhny-Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance have been subjected to many acts of harassment these past few years because of his human rights activities.

The Observatory further recalls that as a Participating State of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russia must conform with paragraph 8 of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Resolution on Strengthening OSCE Engagement with Human Rights Defenders and National Human Rights Institutions, which states that the OSCE Participating States recognise “the need for particular attention, support and protection for human rights defenders by the OSCE, its Institutions and field operations, as well as by participating States”. The Observatory also urges the Russian authorities to conform to the Declaration of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Human Rights Defenders, so as to create an environment conductive to human rights defenders, to take effective measures to protect, promote, and respect them, to ensure their access to effective remedies, to take action to prevent attacks and harassment against them, and to ensure their effective access to the European Court of Human Rights.

Actions requested:

The Observatory urges the authorities of the Russian Federation to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of all members of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance and of all above-mentioned persons;
2. Return back all the equipment that was seized as it seems to merely aim at sanctioning the human rights activities of Foundation;
3. Put an end to all acts of harassment against the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance as well as against all human rights defenders in Nizhny Novgorod and more generally in the Russian Federation, and ensure in all circumstances that they be able to carry out their work without unjustified hindrances;
4. Comply with all the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular with Article 1, which provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, Article 6.b, which provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others [...] freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, as well as with Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
5. Comply with the provisions of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the 2nd Conference on the Human Dimension of the Cooperation and Security Conference in Europe (CSCE) (1990), and uphold in all circumstances the principles and provisions enshrined in the international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Russian Federation and which, in particular, guarantee freedoms of association, demonstration, expression and opinion, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
6. More generally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Russian Federation.

Addresses:

• Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, Faxes:+ 7 095 206 5173 / 230 2408, Email: president@gov.ru;
• Mr. Valeev Ernest Abdulovich, Office of the Prosecutor General in Privolzhskiy Federal Circuit, Fax: +7 8312 78-45-27, 78-45-31
• Regional Prosecutor Maximenko Valery Alezeevich, Prosecutor’s office of NN Region, Fax: +7 831-2 61-85-03
• Mr. Stravinkas Vladimir Vintsuasovich, Investigatory Committee of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Fax: +7 831 2 618506
• Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Ustinov, 103793 g. Moskva K-31, Ul. B. Dimitrovka, d 15a, Russian Federation, Fax: + 7 095 292 88 48;
• Chairwoman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, 103132 g. Moskva, Staraya ploshchad, d 8/5,pod 3, Russian Federation, Fax:+70952064855;
• Vladimir Lukin, Russian Federal Ombudsman for Human Rights, Fax: +7 495 207-53-37;
• Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev, ul. Zhitnaya, 16, 117049 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Rossiia, 117049, Moskva, Fax: + 7 095 237 49 25;
• Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl, 32/34, 121200 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Fax:+ 7 095 244 2203;
• Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva Av. de la Paix 15, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland, e-mail : mission.russian@ties.itu.int, fax: +4122 734 40 44;
• Embassy of the Russian Federation in Brussels, 31-33 boulevard du Régent, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 513 76 49.

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of the Russian Federation in your respective country.

Geneva-Paris, March 20, 2008

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org
Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / +33 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29