Torture in Russia

Torture In Russia

The rights and liberties of the citizens of the Russian Federation are granted by Chapter 2 of the Constitution adopted in 1993.

Russia is the signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has also ratified a number of other international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (fully) and the European Convention of Human Rights (with reservations). These international law instruments take precedence over national legislation according to Chapter 1, Article 15 of the Constitution.

As a member of the Council of Europe Russia has international obligations related to the issue of human rights. In the introduction to the 2004 report on the situation in Russia, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, noted the "sweeping changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union" and reported that "the fledgling Russian democracy is still, of course, far from perfect, but its existence and its successes cannot be denied."

In recent years Vladimir Lukin, current Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, has invariably characterized the human rights situation in Russia as unsatisfactory. However, according to Lukin, this is not discouraging, because building a lawful state and civil society in such a complex country as Russia is a hard and long process.

Freedom House considered Russia partially free with scores of 5 on both political rights and civil liberties (1 being most free, 7 least free) in 2002-2004 and not free with 6 on political rights and 5 on civil liberties in 2005-2008 according to the Freedom in the World reports. In 2006 The Economist published a democracy rating, putting Russia at 102nd place among 167 countries and defining it as a "hybrid regime with a trend towards curtailment of media and other civil liberties."

The European Court of Human Rights has become overwhelmed with cases from Russia. As of June 1, 2007, 22.5% of its pending cases were directed against the Russian Federation. In 2006 there were 151 admissible applications against Russia (out of 1634 for all the countries), while in 2005 - 110 (of 1036), in 2004 - 64 (of 830), in 2003 - 15 (of 753), in 2002 - 12 (of 578).

According to international human rights organizations as well as domestic press, violations of human rights in Russia include widespread and systematic torture of persons in custody by police, dedovshchina in Russian Army, neglect and cruelty in Russian orphanages, violations of children's rights. According to Amnesty International there is discrimination, racism, and murders of members of ethnic minorities. Since 1992 at least 50 journalists have been killed across the country.

The situation in the Russian republic of Chechnya, ravaged by war, has been especially worrying. During the Second Chechen War, started in September 1999, there were summary executions and "disappearances" of civilians in Chechnya. According to the ombudsman of the Chechen Republic, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, as of March 2007 the most complex and painful problem is finding over 2700 abducted and forcefully held citizens; analysis of the complaints of citizens of Chechnya shows that social problems ever more often come to the foreground; two years ago complaints mostly concerned violations of the right to life.

The Federal Law of January 10, 2006 changed the orders affecting registration and operation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society was closed.

There are cases of attacks on demonstrators organized by local authorities. High concern was caused by murders of opposition lawmakers and journalists Anna Politkovskaya, Yuri Schekochikhin, Galina Starovoitova, Sergei Yushenkov, lawyer Stanislav Markelov, and journalist Anastasia Baburova, as well as imprisonments of human rights defenders, scientists, and journalists like Mikhail Trepashkin, Igor Sutyagin, and Valentin Danilov.