Human Rights Violations in Russia : Roma People

-commonly known as Gypsies, and are believed to have psychic powers

-ever since their arrival in Europe they have been faced with discrimination and mistreatment

-were part of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in WWII where ¼ to 1/3 of their people in Europe were killed

-Roma have no one on their side – the police, spiritual leaders, the media – they all portray and treat Roma with no respect

-insufficient help is offered by government and other leading members of Russia

a) Police:

-engage in many discriminatory acts: raid settlements, random and arbitrary document checks, random beatings, theft and destruction of Roma property, obtain money from Roma as bribe payments (eg. To be released from arbitrary detention)

b) Media:

-draws a strong correlation between Roma people and drug related crime

-media has been known to use “Gypsies” and “Drug dealers” interchangeably

-has been witnessed to openly advocate killing Gypsies who deal drugs, as well as imprison and/or evict all Gypsies

-commonly Regional TV channels air negative Roma broadcasts, and Federal channels obtain their information from such Regional channels

c) Vigilante Groups:

-mostly focused around “waging a war against drugs” which is fuelled by the media frenzy discussed above

-also indirectly supported by law-enforcement officers who often turn a blind eye to vigilante group violence against Roma people

d) Justice System:

-fundamental rights in the justice system do not exist for Roma people

-criminal investigations carried out against international and domestic human rights standards

-sentencing has occurred on basis of inconclusive and controversial evidence, and courts have declined defendants requests for further investigation of such evidence

-courts have allowed evidence that should not be allowed under procedural rules

-due process has not been granted to Romani people

-racial bias exits in courts in sentencing process

Russia Statistics (Amnesty International – www.amnesty.org/russia/russia.html)

The Russian Federation emerged as a sovereign state from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991.

A major nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and a member of the G8 grouping of wealthy industrialized countries, Russia remains an influential player on the international stage.

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world in terms of area. It is divided into 89 federal administrative units, including 21 republics.

There are around 144 million people in the country from some 100 distinct ethnic or national backgrounds. These include ethnic Russians (84 per cent of the population), Tatars, Ukrainians, Chuvashians, Bashkirians, Belarusians, Moldovans and Kalmykians.

The majority religion is Russian Orthodox Christian. An estimated 19 per cent of the population are Muslims, while smaller numbers are Jews, Buddhists and members of other religious groups.

In 1991 the Chechen Republic (Chechnya) declared independence. Three years later, Russian forces were sent to Chechnya. The ensuing conflict lasted two years and cost thousands of lives. The Chechen capital, Grozny, suffered massive destruction. The Russian military crack-down failed to subdue Chechen forces and a compromise agreement was signed in 1996 to end a conflict that had increasingly lacked popular support in Russia.

The Russian Federation has ratified numerous international human rights treaties including: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Chechnya (Human Rights Watch – http://hrw.org/wr2k4/7.htm)

The armed conflict in Chechnya, now in its fourth year, is the most serious human rights crisis of the new decade in Europe. It has taken a disastrous toll on the civilian population and is now one of the greatest threats to stability and rule of law in Russia. Yet the international community’s response to it has been shameful and shortsighted.

The international community has a moral and political obligation to protect fundamental rights of people in and around Chechnya. It should with a unified voice be prevailing on the Russian government to halt forced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention, which Russian forces perpetrate on a daily basis. It should be compiling documentation about abuses into an authoritative, official record. It should be vigorously pressing for a credible accountability process for perpetrators of serious violations of international humanitarian law, and should think strategically about how to achieve this when the Russian court system fails to deliver justice. And it should stop Russia from forcing the return of displaced people to areas where their safety and well-being cannot be ensured.

Russia’s second armed conflict in Chechnya in the 1990s began in September 1999. Russia claimed it was a counter-terror operation, aimed at eliminating the chaos that had reined in Chechnya since the end of the 1994-1996 Chechen war and at liquidating terrorist groups that had found haven there. Five months of indiscriminate bombing and shelling in 1999 and early 2000 resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. Three massacres, which followed combat operations, took the lives of at least 130 people. By March 2000, Russia’s federal forces gained at least nominal control over most of Chechnya. They began a pattern of classic “dirty war” tactics and human rights abuses that continue to mark the conflict to this day. Russian forces arbitrarily detain those allegedly suspected of being, or collaborating with, rebel fighters and torture them in custody to secure confessions or testimony. In some cases, the corpses of those last seen in Russian custody were subsequently found, bearing marks of torture and summary execution, in dumping grounds or unmarked graves. More often, those last seen in custody are simply never seen again—they have been forcibly disappeared. Make no mistake, Chechen rebel forces too have committed grave crimes, including numerous brutal attacks targeting civilians in and outside of Chechnya, killing and injuring many. Rebel fighters were also responsible for assassinations of civil servants cooperating with the pro-Moscow Chechen administration of Chechnya. Anti-personnel land mines laid by fighters and Russian forces claimed the lives of federal soldiers and civilians alike.

International Response (Human Rights Watch – http://hrw.org/wr2k4/7.htm)

Little apparent effort was made at the highest levels to press Russia to improve human rights protections in the region. President Putin received a ringing endorsement from governments around the world who helped him celebrate the 300^th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg. Chechnya was at the bottom of the agendas in summits with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush. Speaking on behalf of the Italian presidency of the European Union, Silvio Berlusconi even went so far as to praise the Chechen presidential elections, which nearly every independent observer said were rigged.

Map of the Russian Federation (Amnesty International - www.amnesty.org/russia/russia.html)