#13
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
January 29, 2003
HUMAN RIGHT ADVOCATES NOTICED NO IMPROVEMENTS LAST YEAR
More laws - but fewer rights
Author: Anatoly Kostyukov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE HUMAN RIGHTS PICTURE IN 2002 WAS RATHER DISCOURAGING. ACCORDING TO THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP, REDUCED FREEDOM OF SPEECH WILL INEVITABLY LEAD TO REDUCTION OF REMAINING RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF RUSSIAN CITIZENS, WHICH ARE ALREADY MORE NOMINAL THAN REAL.

Yesterday, the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) presented its "Preliminary report on the human rights situation in Russia in 2002". Usually, the MHG presents the final edition of its annual report in August-September, when this information is rather outdated. This time, they decided to sacrifice quantity to urgency, and released the results of their monitoring before the past year has retreated very far from people's memories.

As expected, the results are rather discouraging. According to the MHG, the government used the inclusion of Russia in the world crusade against international terrorism to justify its unlawful actions against individuals and whole ethnic groups. This applies not only to the notorious search operations in Chechnya and harassment of people from the Caucasus in Russia. In particular, analyzing the raid to liberate the Moscow theater hostages, MHG experts concluded that the leaders of the operation did not take the necessary measures to protect the lives of terrorist victims. In mid-2002, the law "On counteracting extremist activities" was passed, which is supposed to protect human rights. However, the MHG is dissatisfied with the law and its observation. In its opinion, a serious drawback of the law is that it is possible to use it against any organization or media outlet which displeases the authorities. At the same time, law enforcement bodies keep insisting that "there are no skinheads in Russia" and describe extremist actions as ordinary hooliganism.

According to the report, a selective approach in assessing law- breaking, discriminating on the basis of race and ethnicity, is widespread practice in the Russian justice system. And freedom of religion is also barely protected in Russia. Last year, human rights groups registered five cases of direct interference by the state in inter-faith relations, due to which the rights of Russia's Catholic and Buddhist communities were infringed. The report gives a graphic example of the de facto inequality of believers before civil law. Several Tatarstan courts rejected appeals from Muslim women to keep their yashmaks on when having their passport photos taken. The women were told that civil law takes priority over religion. At the same time, the Priozersk court of the Leningrad region ruled in favor of a group of Russian Orthodox believers who refused to accept a "devil's mark" - an Individual Taxpayer Number - on religious grounds.

For eight years, Russian human rights groups have tried to have a law on alternative civilian service passed. Last year, it was recognized as legal. However, human rights groups are still not satisfied. Although this law exists, it is extremely hard to exercise one's right not to serve in the military. Usually, everything depends on a given judge's view. There was a rare case last year: 35 conscripts defended their right to alternative service in the Perm region. In most Russian regions, judges do not permit "such frivolities".

Last year was noted as especially unfavorable for freedom of speech. According to the MHG, after the TV-6 television channel was shut down, the elimination of independent national television broadcasting was complete. The report says: "Out of six free-to-air television channels, four are directly or indirectly controlled by the federal authorities; one is controlled by the Moscow government; and another is controlled by politicians loyal to the Kremlin and big business." The "freedom space" is also being reduced in other media sectors, which, according to the MHG, will inevitably lead to a curtailment of the remaining rights and liberties of Russian citizens, which are already more nominal than real.

(Translated by Arina Yevtikhova)

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