Europe and Central Asia

In some countries, the situation has dramatically worsened, especially in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation.

As reported in part I above, 2009 witnessed an unprecedented series of killings, with six HRDs killed in twelve months. Many more suffered attempted killings or other attacks. In Daguestan, the office of Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights was burned to the ground and leaflets were distributed naming HRDs and journalists as targets.

The Russian authorities did not conduct any serious investigations of these systematic attacks and continued to hamper their work. HRDs fighting racism and xenophobia were particularly vulnerable, threatened by radical nationalists and ultra right-wing organisations.

The outrageous assassinations of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasya Baburova, committed in broad daylight in the centre of Moscow in January 2009, well illustrate their vulnerability and lack of protection.

In Belarus, the authorities continued to show their hostile attitude towards human rights groups by labelling them as politically motivated. The Criminal Code criminalises members of non-registered organisations, and the authorities continued to systematically deny registration to human rights groups, thus making any human rights work illegal.

Peaceful demonstrations remained banned for spurious reasons, unauthorised peaceful demonstrations were violently dispersed and protesters were systematically arrested and beaten up by the police.

In Armenia, human rights defenders and independent journalists continued to be threatened and attacked. Legislative amendments imposing strict government control upon NGOs were pending before parliament at the time of writing.

In Georgia, amendments to the Law on Assembly and Manifestations in 2009 were used by state officials to restrict freedom of peaceful assembly.

In Azerbaijan, freedom of expression continued to be limited. Two bloggers were assaulted by unknown men for ‘criticising the leadership of the country’. When they reported to the police, they were arrested and charged with ‘hooliganism’ and ‘infliction of minor bodily harm’, and in November they were sentenced to two and half and two years imprisonment respectively.

During 2009, the situation has worsened in all Central Asian countries. Turkmenistan remained one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Human rights work is virtually impossible, national media are muzzled, foreign press is banned, the Internet is monitored by a special branch of the police, and independent journalists are subjected to multiple acts of pressure and harassment.

In Uzbekistan, the authorities continued to silence HRDs by sentencing them for alleged economic crimes such as fraud, theft or tax evasion (see part I above). In many of these cases, HRDs were sentenced to disproportionately long imprisonment terms, following unfair trials.

The high number of activists detained, the appalling conditions of Uzbek prisons and the impossibility for independent bodies to access them, discourage human rights activism. International human rights organisations were not allowed to operate in the country. Restrictive legislation on NGOs introduced in 2005 made impossible the legal operation of many human rights groups, forcing them into clandestinity. Many Uzbek HRDs are under strict police surveillance and face systematic intimidation by the authorities.

The human rights situation in Kyrgyzstan deteriorated significantly at the time of the presidential campaign held over the summer. A set of laws passed in 2008 restricted several of the fundamental civil and political rights enshrined in the Constitution.

This particularly affected freedom of assembly which was subject to a regime of prior authorisation, with broad discretionary powers granted to the authorities. As a result, all protests organised after the law was amended were forcibly dispersed and protesters prosecuted. The authorities continued the practice of denying access to the national territory to representatives of foreign human rights organisations.

In Kazakhstan, which will held the presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010, prominent human rights defender Yevgeny Zhovtis was sentenced to four years’ detention for his involvement in a car accident, following a trial marred by major violations of fair trial guarantees and despite intense international and local pressure.

Front Line issued 45 urgent appeals on behalf of human rights defenders at risk from 11 countries from Europe and Central Asia, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan,Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.