Chechnya sets up Human Rights Council under republic's leader

The provisions on the Human Rights Council under the republic's leader should be prepared within a month. "The Council should be a kind of connecting link between the authorities and the civil society," stated officials from the administration of the republic's leader and the government of the Chechen Republic.

However, local experts express their doubts about the feasibility of establishing a body which, in their opinion, would be controlled by the authorities.

"Judging by his speeches delivered in recent years, Ramzan Kadyrov has a negative attitude to the human rights community and considers non-governmental organizations to be unnecessary and even harmful," said the leader of one of the public organizations of the republic, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Aslan, a staff member of a Chechen human rights organization, has stated that he several times attended the meetings of civil activists with the leader of the republic and other representatives of the authorities. "There, everything takes place in the form of a monologue of one person. Any attempt to describe a problem, let alone to criticize anything, is immediately suppressed," Aslan has stated.

However, there are many persons in Chechnya who believe that Chechnya should create the Human Rights Council.

"If such a Council is established, then, in the case of violation of their rights, citizens will be able to actually bring it directly to the leader of the republic, and the reaction is bound to be," believes Lukman A., a resident of Grozny, a staff member of one of the Republic's Ministries.