Human rights defenders ask PACE Chairman to trace Russia's fulfilment of resolution on Northern Caucasus

International and Russian human rights organizations assert that over the past six months the human rights situation in Northern Caucasus has not improved, and ask the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to trace fulfilment by Russia of the resolution on Northern Caucasus.

Yesterday, on December 13, the letter drafted during the conference on the human rights situation in Northern Caucasus, which was held in Stockholm (Sweden) on November 23-24, was sent to the Chairman of the PACE. This was reported in the message of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which arrived at the editorial office of the "Caucasian Knot".

The authors of the letter draw attention to the fact that the PACE Resolution 1738 (2010) "Remedies in cases of violations of human rights in Northern Caucasus", adopted on the basis of the report dated June 1, prepared by the Rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Dick Marty, is not effectively enforced.

"Unfortunately, over the past six months, the human rights situation in the region has not improved, there is no tangible progress in the investigation of specific cases of human rights violations in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, cited in Mr Marty's report," runs the letter.

The signatories called on the PACE Chairman to renew the mandate, under which Dick Marty had been working in Northern Caucasus.

Also, the authors of the letter offer to request information from the Russian party about the investigation of the episodes documented in the report and hope that the Committee will appoint a rapporteur to carry out a monitoring mission in the region and report to the Assembly about the investigation of the above episodes, and more generally - on the dynamics in the human rights situation in Northern Caucasus.