Introduction
In the past few months
However, the first Chechen War, which started in late 1994, threw grave doubt on the application. The first Russian Human Rights Ombudsman, Sergey Kovalyov, who played a leading role in combating human rights violations in
Nevertheless, on 25 January 1996 after fierce debate the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE (PACE) voted by a two thirds majority to admit
Obligations
At a ceremony held in
The death penalty
However, a very important obligation was:
“… to sign within one year and ratify within three years from the time of accession, Protocol No.6 to the European Convention on Human Rights on the abolition of the death penalty in time of peace, and to put into place a moratorium on executions with effect from the day of accession;”
Accordingly, on 16 May 1996 President Yeltsin issued a Decree ordering the government to present to the Duma within one month a law on ratification of Protocol 6, and on 2 August he announced an unofficial moratorium on executions. However, the Duma refused to ratify Protocol 6, and also refused to enact a law on moratorium. In August 1999 the Russian Government once more submitted Protocol 6 to the Duma for ratification. This met a similar fate.
The matter was resolved indirectly when, in February 1999, the
This extraordinary delay in abolishing the death penalty has not gone unnoticed in
The YUKOS cases
Another continuing matter of grave concern to the CoE is the continuing and remorseless prosecution by
The Assembly also recalls its resolution 1418 (2005) and recommendation 1692 (2005) on the circumstances of the arrest and prosecution of leading YUKOS executives and regrets that subsequent developments have shown that the Assembly’s well-founded and constructive criticism was not taken into account by the competent Russian authorities.”
These expressions of regret by CoE institutions, and the defeats in the cases noted above, received a stunning riposte from the Russian authorities when, on Wednesday 20 December 2006, the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) voted to refuse ratification of Protocol 14 to the ECHR. This Protocol, which must be ratified by every one of the CoE’s 46 member states in order to come into force, is designed to streamline the procedure of the Strasbourg Court, so as to reduce the backlog of cases (now about 80,000 cases), and shorten the time needed to deliver a decision (now 5-6 years for a “fast-track” case, up to 12 years for other cases). The Vice-Speaker of the Duma, the nationalist Sergey Baburin, complained “… our voluminous membership fees (Euro 12m, the same as the
The Secretary General of the CoE, Terry Davis, immediately issued a Declaration expressing his disappointment that “essential and long-overdue changes… must be put on hold.” [21] This is a rare response, and in diplomatic terms very strongly worded.
Any impression that the Duma had somehow thwarted the President’s genuine intent was dispelled when, on 11 January 2007 he met members of the “Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council”. Former
“Unfortunately, our country is coming into collision with a politicisation of judicial decisions. We all know about the case of Ilascu, where the
This was the first time Putin had openly criticised a decision of the ECtHR. He was answered two days later by René van der Linden, the Chairman of PACE, who insisted that if the Court renders a decision in favour of a citizen whose claim was not satisfied in the courts of his country, this must be seen as a decision directed to the protection of the citizen, and not against the state.[23]
Further light was thrown on Russia’s extreme sensitivity to losing these cases on 31 January 2007 when the recently retired President of the ECtHR, Luzius Wildhaber, not only claimed that he might have been poisoned during a visit to Russian in October 2006, but, more significantly, reported that he had been threatened by Russia. Specifically, he told the Neue Züricher Zeitung that Russia’s Ambassador to the CoE had come to his office in October 2002 to say that unless the Chechens (in Shamayev v Russia and Georgia, above) were handed over within 24 hours, Russia would blame the Court for the Moscow Theatre siege when Chechen extremists took 850 people hostage. Wildhaber said “It was a vile form of blackmail.”[24]
Conclusion
Of course, the recent events throw into question
[1] See, for example, the chapters by Bill Bowring “Human Rights in Russia: Discourse of Emancipation or only a Mirage?” and by Rein Mullerson “Perspectives on Human Rights and Democracy in the Former Soviet Republics” in Istvan Pogany (ed) Human Rights in Eastern Europe (Edward Elgar, 1995); and Anntti Korkeakivi “Russia on the Rights Track: Human Rights in the New Constitution” (1994) Parker School Journal of Eastern European Law pp.233-253
[2] See Alexandra Chistyakova “The Russian Bill of Rights: Implications” Vol 24 (1992-3) Columbia Humna Rights Law Review pp.369-394
[3] Scott Parish, (1996) OMRI Daily Digest 26 January 1996
[4] Penny Morvant, (1996) OMRI Daily Digest 29 January 1996.
[5] Federal Law No.19 - F3. The text is set out in S. A. Glotov Pravo Soveta Evropi I Rossii [The Law of the Council of Europe and
[6] Scott Parish, (1996) OMRI Daily Digest 22 February 1996. Lukin is now the Human Rights Ombudsman.
[7] See S. A. Glotov, ibid, pp.82-89
[8] Decision of 2 February 1999, No. 3-P, Rossiskaya Gazeta, 10 February 1999, English summary in Venice Commission, Bulletin on Constitutional Case-Law, Edition 1999-1, pp. 96-98.
[9] http://prima-news.ru/eng/news/2006/11/17/37095.html
[10] http://www.demokratia.ru/archive-ru/2007/obzor_zakonov_109.zip
[11] http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28873633_ITM
[12] Application no. 70276/01, decision of 19 May 2004.
[13] Application no. 48787/99, decision of 8 July 2004
[14] These applicants were represented, from 2000, by the author and his colleagues from the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, which he founded, in partnership with the Russian human rights NGO “Memorial”, with EU funding, in 2002.
[15] Application no. 36378/02, [2005] ECHR 233, decision of 12 April 2005
[16] See Annual Survey of Activity for 2006, at http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/69564084-9825-430B-9150-A9137DD22737/0/Survey_2006.pdf
[17] “Europe’s interest in the continued economic development of
[18] http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=5031
[19] http://www.kommersant.com/p732043/r_500/State_Duma_European_Court/
[20] http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20061225/57808422.html
[21] https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1078355&BackColorInternet=F5CA75&BackColorIntranet=F5CA75&BackColorLogged=A9BACE
[22] http://www.kremlin.ru/text/appears/2007/01/116589.shtml
[23] Press conference in
http://www.newsru.com/arch/russia/12jan2007/otvet.html
[24] Luke Harding “I was poisoned by Russian, human rights judge says” The Guardian 1 February 2007, at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2003282,00.html
[25] For Putin’s speech, and question and answer session, see
http://president.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/02/10/0138_type82912type82914type82917type84779_118135.shtml
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