RIGHTS: Where Russia Is Not European

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Jan 23 2007 (IPS) - A leading human rights lawyer has accused the Kremlin of obstructing the work of the European Court of Human Rights.

“It is clear that the Russian authorities want to block the activity of the European Court of Human Rights,” Marina Moskalenko, a lawyer who has represented Russians in the European court told IPS. “This is lamentable. If you join an honourable club, then you have to carry out the commitments you have made as part of that club.”

The Council of Europe, a grouping of 46 European nations, including 21 countries from Central and Eastern Europe, that seeks to promote social and economic growth in member states, has expressed disappointment with the refusal of the Russian Duma (parliament) to ratify protocol 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Council of Europe secretary-general Terry Davis said in a statement that he was disappointed that the State Duma voted against ratification of the protocol. He rejected criticism that the protocol was biased against Russia.

The State Duma, which comprises 450 parliamentarians, the majority from the pro-Kremlin party United Russia, refused Dec. 20 to ratify protocol 14, which sets out reforms of the European court. The ratification proposal got only 27 votes, with 138 lawmakers voting against it and many abstentions. The measure needed 226 votes to pass in the chamber.

The protocol was submitted to the legislative body by President Vladimir Putin in November. This was a rare case in which the Kremlin-dominated parliament opposed a presidential initiative, leading some leaders to suggest that the refusal came from the Kremlin itself.

Russia is the only one of 46 countries under the European court jurisdiction that has not ratified the reform intended to deal with a backlog of cases and to ensure that rulings are implemented. To come into effect, the reforms must be ratified by all Council of Europe member states.

Russia is the biggest source of applications to the court. Human rights activists say this is evidence of Russia’s lack of respect for human rights and the lack of independence of its judicial system.

President Putin expressed unhappiness with the Strasbourg-based court last week, saying some of its decisions on Russia were political. Many other politicians have been bristling over rulings in the European court in cases such as atrocities against the civilian population in the restive Chechnya province, and over other human rights violations.

The State Duma’s Legislative Committee said the parliament failed to ratify the protocol because there were some contradictions between national and international laws, and ratification of the protocol would weaken checks and balances in the European court’s jurisdiction in Russia.

“It’s the interest of the country that there is a clear understanding about the position it takes and its further implications. This is necessary to avoid irreversible mistakes,” spokesman for the chamber’s committee on legal affairs Alexander Urmanov told IPS.

Urmanov said the chamber has not abandoned discussion on the protocol, and would return to it. “All depends on important matters on the agenda during this first quarter of the parliamentary session. We just have to wait for the next appropriate time when it again comes up for deliberation,” he said.

“It is obvious that the decision of the State Duma was not for judicial but for political reasons,” independent lawmaker Sergey Popov told IPS. “Russian citizens have turned themselves into the Strasbourg law court because they do not trust our judicial system.”

“Russia is not the only country in Europe which has a poor human rights record, but the Russian political elite seems to be the only one not only ready to admit it, but, in a way, is proud of it,” director of the Institute for Globalisation Studies Boris Kagalitsky told IPS.

“Of course that can be seen as a continuation of the Soviet tradition when human right issues were seen as a pretext of foreign interference in domestic affairs. In fact, that makes some sense, because the west did use human rights this way quite a few times.”

But Russia’s parliament is now blocking any progressive measures towards creation of democratic institutions, and is trying to deny Russians a chance to appeal against their own bureaucracy, he said. “The ones who will suffer most are Russians living in the Baltic states. These states are the major human rights violators within the European Union, but unlike Russia their elites at least know how to pretend be to a civilised society.” (END/IPS/EU/IP/HD/KK/SS/07)