Friederike Behr: it would be hard to work without rights defenders' help

On May 12, the Independent Press Centre in Prechistenka Street hosted presentation of the Annual Report of the Amnesty International (AI), which provides a comprehensive picture of the human rights situation in 157 countries of the world and analysis of the situation in 2010.

The event was held on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Amnesty International to be marked on May 28. Apart from this date, as noted by Friederike Behr, the AI's researcher on the Russian Federation, who spoke at the report presentation, this year we also mark the 90th birthday of Andrei Sakharov.

Nicola Duckworth, Director of the AI for Europe and Central Asia, said in her word that "people refuse to be afraid." They bravely stand against corruption, against fear and repressions. However, they face serious opposition of repressive forces.

"We see examples in Azerbaijan and Belarus. Azerbaijani authorities have severely cracked down public protests, to which people got inspired by Middle East events. They banned peaceful demonstrations, violently dispersed protesters and arrested main organizers. These actions show how fragile and unstable the situation with the freedom of expression is now in Azerbaijan, and how far the authorities are ready to go in order to silence the dissidents. Now the governments want to subjugate the new social movements evolving in social networks; the struggle is underway for control over access to information, communication and network technologies," said Ms Duckworth.

The next speaker was Alexander Mnatsakanyan, a consultant of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights. Sergey Nikitin, Director of the AI's representative office in Russia, introduced him as a man "who had recently defended freedom and justice in the neighbouring country Belarus."

"Belarus has a unique civil society. It's quite small but very active and violent, which makes me personally sympathetic," Mr Mnatsakanyan shared his observations. "It is represented by people of all ages, of very differing opinions, ranging from monarchists up to nationalists. Its composition is very different: journalists, musicians, painters."

In the course of the trip to Belarus he learnt that more than 700 persons were driven through administrative courts; 45 persons were brought to criminal liability. Russian citizens were among the detainees. Local authorities deported Mnatsakanyan from Belarus.

The next speaker was Friederike Behr, the AI's researcher on the Russian Federation. According to her story, the rights defenders and journalists, who dare to speak against corruption and against restrictions on the freedom of speech, expose their lives to mortal danger. In 2010, three rights defenders perished in Chechnya killed, among them - Natasha Estemirova. Matters stand not in the best way in Ingushetia and Dagestan. "Apart from the murder in Dagestan of a journalist and rights defender, we know about beatings of five lawyers, three of them were women, who performed their professional duties of defending their clients. Law enforcers beat them," said Friederike Behr. "There are pretty plenty examples of such human rights violations. In Moscow, Oleg Kashin, a journalist of the newspaper 'Kommersant', was beaten. President Medvedev said that the perpetrators should be surely found and punished. However, unfortunately, neither these criminals, nor those who killed Natasha Estemirova and Anna Politkovskaya, have been found so far. Attacks on rights defenders and journalists are frequent; culprits are almost never found."

According to Friederike Behr, the work of the Investigatory Committee in the Chechen Republic and in other North Caucasus republics is ineffective. "There is some progress, but the situation in Northern Caucasus remains instable," she said. "Last year, both federal and regional authorities had to admit that their methods of combating the so-called 'terrorism' were ineffective. On the other hand, the work of rights defenders gives some positive results, although their activities in the republics such as Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, requires courage. Together with the Amnesty International, they do a lot for the defence of human rights in these republics. And I would like to thank them and express my respect for Russian rights defenders, without whose help it would be very difficult to work," Friederike Behr said in conclusion.

In answer to questions of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about organization of AI's work in Northern Caucasus, Friederike Behr said that information for the report had been gathered both from mass media and from personal contacts with people, state officials and law enforcers.