All-Russian Human Rights Congress on situation in North Caucasus

On December 10, Moscow hosted the Second All-Russian Congress in Defence of Human Rights. The Congress adopted a great package of resolutions: Solidarity and Cooperation (What can we oppose to the war in North Caucasus?).

The Second Human Rights Congress marked that after the years that passed, the armed conflict remains far from its settlement. "During the period after the First Human Rights Congress (January 2001), a real, not imaginary, terror was unleashed in North Caucasus and in Russia as a whole: explosions, captures of hundreds hostages in theatres and schools. The war consequences are felt all across Russia, where "power agents" return from their Caucasian voyages, well experienced in unpunished violence. The roots of almost every all-Russian problem - from growth of xenophobia to deprivation of citizens of their suffrage - are related to the ongoing," the resolution states. "The forms of the conflict and the forms of breaching human rights have changed in the course of the so-called "counterterrorist operation": from large-scale combat operations, massed and non-selective bombardment and shelling, from regular clean-ups ("zachistkas") of dwelling settlements - to "addressed" special operations of "death squads," to "Chechenization" of the conflict and fabrication of criminal cases with the help of tortures."

The resolution also marked the expansion of the conflict from the territory of Chechnya to practically all the regions of North Caucasus.

If the situation in Chechnya is not so notable at the background of the neighbouring regions, it means to a large extend that during the past years the situation has aggravated in the Caucasus and in Russia as a whole.

The All-Russian Human Rights Congress also emphasized strengthened pressure in Russia on the freedom of speech and civil society.

In this context, the human rights activists declare the necessity to improve solidarity and cooperation of human rights defenders "not only in North Caucasus, not only in Russia as a whole, but also within the world human rights defending community."