Human rights defenders urge to involve UN in investigation into executions in Chechnya

The Russian authorities avoid examining the evidence of extrajudicial killings in Chechnya, states the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*. The human rights defenders requested the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to oblige Russia to involve international institutions in the investigation and to send a UN working group on enforced disappearances to Northern Caucasus.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in March 2018, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) issued a resolution refusing to institute a criminal case on the extrajudicial executions of 27 people in Chechnya, which the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta” reported in July 2017. In September 2019, relatives of the people on the “execution list” lodged a complaint to the ECtHR. The complainants claimed that the Russian authorities had failed to conduct an effective investigation into the reports about the extrajudicial execution.

Today, the press service for the HRC “Memorial”* has reported that while answering the questions from the ECtHR on the complaints filed by the relatives of the people on the “execution list,” the Russian government stated that those people had left for Syria, but the version “did not stand up to criticism.” Lawyers from the HRC “Memorial”* represent the interests of the relatives of two of the people on the “execution list.”

The human rights defenders requested the ECtHR to recognize in the case the violations of Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 5 (right to a fair trial), and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The recognition of those violations should become the basis for instituting a criminal case and conducting an effective investigation into the disappearances of people, but “there is little hope for such a reaction from the Russian investigative bodies,” the Human Rights Centre admits.

“Therefore, we request the ECtHR to directly notify Russia that it should, firstly, address an influential international body with experience in searching for persons missing as a result of armed conflict or human rights violations (for example, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)), the International Commission on Missing Persons, or the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF)) for consultations on the possibilities of a humanitarian settlement of the situation with disappearances of people in Northern Caucasus, and, secondly, let the UN working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances to visit Russia and, in particular, Northern Caucasus, and implement the recommendations that will be issued as a result of the visit,” the human rights defenders state.

* the HRC "Memorial" is recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 15, 2021 at 03:21 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.