Winners of contest of "Caucasian Knot" among open letters and appeals defined

The contest of open letters and appeals, published at the interactive sites of the "Caucasian Knot", summarizes the results. The Expert Council of the Human Rights Activists determined the winners. Five authors were awarded.

The contest was open to all users who had left an appeal or an open letter on the sites of the "Caucasian Knot" sites in the period of October 1, 2010, to February 28, 2011. 13 appeals participated at the contest.

The Expert Council included Lyudmila Alekseeva, the Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Galina Arapova, the head of the Centre for Media Rights Protection, Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Russian non-commercial organization "Committee against Torture", Biyakai Magomedov, the lawyer from Dagestan, Anna Sevortyan, the Director of the Moscow office of the human rights activists organization "Human Rights Watch".

First place went to the Announcement of Antidiscrimination Centre "Memorial" to the International Migrant's Day on December 18. Call to ratification of the Convention on Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers, which was posted on December 17, 2010. The human rights organization calls the Russian Federation to ratify this document and ensure the rights of migrant workers, noting that Russia is a country that takes almost the largest number of migrant workers.

Second place went to the Appeal of the Coordination Centre of the Ingushetia's NGOs "Leave dead people in peace!", which Magomed Mutsolgov, a human rights activist from Ingushetia, posted at his blog on March 21, 2011. In this Appeal the public activists urge the public authorities of Ingushetia not to rename the Monument to the victims of political repression, and not to change the territory of the Ingush cemeteries.

Third place went to the open statement on the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria "Polyphony of civil society" in connection with discussion of the Draft Law "On Police"(blog of the KBR (the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic), the author is the lawyer Larisa Dorogova) of November 16, 2010. The author of the appeal to the law enforcement bodies and the State Duma of the Russian Federation reported on violations of human rights by law enforcers in the republic.

Fourth place went to video message of Ramadan Utarbiev (the author is an employee of Dagestani newspaper "Chernovik" (Draft)). In his video message Utarbiev assures that the brawl in Moscow in last November, during which Yegor Sviridov, the Moscow football fan, was murdered, was started by the crowd of drunk young people, who started to beat Utarbiev and his companions, now accused in involvement in the brawl. Participator of the incident explained that he was hiding from law enforcement agents, as he feared for his life. However, Utarbiev stated that he was ready to surrender in case the investigation would be objective.

Fifth place went to the Open letter to the President of the Russian Federation of vegetable gardeners from the city of Kislovodsk, Stavropol territory. Representatives of several vegetable garden non-commercial partnerships, located in the vicinity of Pchelsovkhoz (Beekeeping Soviet Farm) of Kislovodsk in Stavropol territory, said they feared that upon transfer of their leased land into federal ownership, they would lose the right to use the land.

Positioning itself to be a publication for people and about people, the "Caucasian Knot" gives priority to the coverage of events that affect the ordinary people of the Caucasus. Readers can post their messages under each material of the "Caucasian Knot" and in blogs and forums.

See earlier report: "The bbcrussian.com special brings together bloggers from across North Caucasus".