European Court criticizes Russia for systemic non-investigation of disappearances in Chechnya and recommends measures to address continuing violations
SRJI Russian Justice Initiative
European Court criticizes Russia for systemic non-investigation of disappearances in Chechnya and recommends measures to address continuing violations
The European Court of Human Rights found Russia responsible for the disappearance of eight men in Chechnya between 2002-2004, and for the first time in one of its judgments concerning Chechnya, declared Russia’s failure to effectively investigate disappearances to be a systemic problem requiring an urgent remedy at the domestic level, Russian Justice Initiative and its partner organization “Astreya”, reported today.
The applicants in the case Aslakhanova and others v Russia are the close relatives of eight men from five different families, who were abducted and subsequently were forcibly disappeared. The court found that the responsibility for each enforced disappearance lay with the Russian authorities, namely with federal servicemen. Furthermore, the Court found that the Russian authorities had failed to secure investigations capable of leading to the identification and punishment of those responsible for the disappearances, and found that certain relatives of the disappeared men had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment on account of how the authorities had handled their requests to investigate the fate of their relatives.
The Court merged the applications in September 2011 when it communicated additional questions to the parties concerning the systemic nature of non-investigation, to which both Russian Justice Initiative and the Russian Government replied. The judgment is the first in which the Court found a systemic failure to investigate disappearances in Chechnya under Article 46 of the European Convention, which sets out the obligations of Council of Europe member states to abide by and execute the Court’s judgments. It is the 215th judgment handed down by the European Court in respect of grave human rights violations in the North Caucasus, and the 147th judgment handed down in respect of enforced disappearances in Chechnya, almost all of which were committed by state agents and none of which have been effectively investigated to the present day.
The Court characterized the situation regarding non-investigation of disappearances as “resulting from systemic problems at the national level, for which there is no effective domestic remedy” and which “affects core human rights and requires the prompt implementation of comprehensive and complex measures.” While the Court noted that it was not in a position to order the exact measures to be implemented by Russia or to set a deadline in order to comply with the judgment, it stipulated that a number of urgent measures appeared inevitable to end or to alleviate the continuing violations of the Convention, dealing mainly with the continued suffering of the relatives of the victims of the disappeared as well as with ensuring the effectiveness of investigations.
The Court stipulated that a comprehensive and time-bound strategy was to be prepared by Russia and submitted to the Committee of Ministers without delay for the supervision of its implementation. The Committee of Ministers, during its September 2012 human rights meeting on implementation of judgments, already issued a decision calling upon Russia to prepare a unified strategy to address pressing issues in the so-called group of over 150 “Chechen cases” such as the identification of remains, the application of amnesty legislation and statutes of limitation for prosecution, and uninhibited access to archival materials.
Six of the applicants from two different families in Aslakhanova and others v Russia were represented by Russian Justice Initiative and “Astreya”, while seven applicants from the other three families were represented by Mr Dokka Itslaev, an independent lawyer in Chechnya. The Court awarded approximately 550 000 EUR in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage to the applicants.
For more information:
In Moscow, Anastasia Kushleyko, Legal Director, “Astreya:” +7 (495) 915-0869, +7 (962) 932-7878.
In Moscow, Vanessa Kogan, Executive Director, Russian Justice Initiative; Director, “Astreya”: +7 (495) 915-0869, +7 925 863 5111.