Human rights activists from Kabardino-Balkaria not on the list of prison observers

The Public Chamber of Russia has approved the list of public observers to be in charge of public control over places of detention according to the Law of the Russian Federation of June 10, 2008, "On Public Control over Ensuring Human Rights in Places of Detention and on Assistance to Inmates".

Representatives of the Public Human Rights Centre of Kabardino-Balkaria were not put on the list of the observers, although they had applied for.

Zaur Shokuev, a lawyer of the Human Rights Centre, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that according to point 1, Article 10, public organizations may nominate their members to act as observers within one month after official publication of the Law.

'According to Mr Shokuev, the human rights activists of the KBR missed the monthly term, however, they still applied, and the initiative arrived from the Public Chamber as such, whose representative said in a telephone conversation "that the deadline was no matter, since many regions failed to submit their applications on the due date."

"As of that moment, only three persons were nominated from the KBR, since under the Law there should be at least five observers in every region," said Shokuev. "We put forward two more nominees to be affirmed by the Board of the Public Chamber. Our nominees were highlighted, together with the three other candidates from the KBR, in the website of Public Chamber."

"About mid-January, I made a call to the secretariat of the Public Chamber; I was told that we had missed the deadline, and our candidates were not approved, although they had told earlier that the deadline was no problem," Mr Shokuev has added.

The situation was also commented by Valery Khatazhukov, head of the Human Rights Centre of the KBR: "Why was it so important for us to get on the list of observers? We are particularly engaged in this work. We consider inmates' complaints. We could make a lot of good things."

According to the head of the Human Rights Centre, his organization twice claimed for a grant of the Public Chamber. First time, the Public Chamber's website even placed the information that a grant was awarded to the Kabardino-Balkarian Public Human Rights Centre. However, no grant was actually allocated.

In the course of the second attempt to claim for a grant, the Chamber's website again announced that the application of the Human Rights Centre of the KBR corresponded to the requirements of the contest. "As to the other applicant for a grant from the KBR, the site had informed that its activities failed to meet the requirements of the contest. As a result, the grant was allocated to that very organization, whose activities failed to meet the requirements," said Mr Khatazhukov.