OSCE acknowledges torture and extrajudicial executions in Chechnya

The information about violent disappearances, torture, extrajudicial executions, pressure on human rights defenders and persecutions of gays in Chechnya has been treated as indisputable facts in the report. The publication thereof will not affect the situation in the republic, but it will make it easier for refugees from Chechnya to get protection abroad, activists of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" told the "Caucasian Knot".

The report by Wolfgang Benedek, Professor of the international law, about human rights violations in Chechnya, has been prepared within the framework of the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe); it was published on December 20.

The findings of the OSCE's expert are advisory in nature, said Tatiana Glushkova, a lawyer of the HRC "Memorial", where she works in the programme "Human rights protection by using international mechanisms". Russia has been recommended, in particular, to conduct trials involving human rights violations in Chechnya outside the republic.

A fragment of the report is dedicated to the case of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Grozny representative office of the HRC "Memorial". "Titiev, as stressed in the report, should be immediately released," Ms Glushkova has noted to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, noting that the OSCE Moscow Mechanism "has no methods to enforce Russia to fulfil the recommendations," therefore "Russia may well refuse to follow them."

In this regard, Tatiana Glushkova considers the recommendations, given to the OSCE member states much more significant. "This is the need to give protection to refugees from Chechnya, in particular, to members of the LGBT community, as well as to support the work of NGOs, human rights defenders and journalists acting in Chechnya," Ms Glushkova has added.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 21, 2018 at 01:47 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.