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Recommendation 1600 (2003)
The human rights situation in the Chechen Republic
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:
3.1. 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;
3.2. 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;
3.3. 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;
3.4. urge the Government of the Russian Federation to fully
comply with the Resolution
1323;
3.5. 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.