Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution 1323 (2003) on the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic. It reiterates its belief that there will be no peace without justice in Chechnya.

2. The Assembly considers that urgent action is necessary to counteract the climate of impunity which has developed in the Chechen Republic over the last decade. Those guilty of past human rights abuses – whichever side of the conflict they belong to – must be brought to justice without further delay, and further human rights violations must be actively prevented.

3. Considering that the efforts undertaken so far by all actors involved, starting with the Russian Federation Government, administration and judicial system, but also including the Council of Europe and its member states, have failed dismally to improve the human rights situation and to ensure that past human rights violations, and particularly war crimes, are adequately prosecuted, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

i. reorient its assistance programmes in the North Caucasus towards an amelioration of the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic as the priority objective, and allocate sufficient funds to these programmes to make a real difference;

ii. ensure that non-governmental organisations active in preventing and documenting human rights violations in the Chechen Republic, as well as those assisting their victims in different ways, are involved in the said assistance programmes;

iii. take all possible measures to increase the effectiveness of the current mandate of the Council of Europe experts working in the Office of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Human Rights in the Chechen Republic as regards their possibility of influencing the human rights situation;

iv. urge the Government of the Russian Federation to fully comply with the Resolution 1323;

v. if the efforts to bring to justice those responsible for human rights violations are not intensified, and the climate of impunity in the Chechen Republic prevails, consider proposing to the international community the setting up of an ad hoc tribunal to try war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Chechen Republic.

4. Furthermore, the Assembly decides to petition the Committee of Ministers by virtue of paragraph 1 of its 1994 Declaration on compliance with commitments accepted by member states of the Council of Europe, and recommends that the Committee of Ministers instruct the Secretary General to make contacts, collect information and furnish advice on the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic, in accordance with paragraph 4 of the said declaration.

1. Assembly debate on 2 April 2003 (13th Sitting) (see Doc. 9732, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Bindig).

Text adopted by the Assembly on 2 April 2003 (13th Sitting).