MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on murder of human rights activists in Russia
15.9.2009
pursuant to Rule 122 of the Rules of Procedure
Søren Bo Søndergaard on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
B7‑0068/2009
European Parliament resolution on murder of human rights activists in Russia
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the UN declaration on Human Rights Defenders.,
– having regard to Rule 122(5) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. Whereas the human rights defender Zarema Sadulayeva the head of the non-governmental organization Save the Generation, which helps children with disabilities in Chechnya and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov were killed in Chechnya on 10 August 2009;
B. whereas Natalia Estemirova, a leading human rights defender in Chechnya, was found shot dead in Ingushetia on 15 July 2009,
C. whereas Markelov, a prominent Russian human rights lawyer, was shot dead on the afternoon of 19 January 2009, on Prechistenka Street in central Moscow,
D. whereas Anna Politkovskaya, the Novaya Gazeta reporter gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building in 2006;
E. Whereas investigators and judicial authorities of the Russian Federation have failed, so far, to identify the perpetrators of those crimes and bring them to justice;
1. Condemns the murders of the human rights defender in Russia and in Chechnya and expresses its solidarity with the families of the victims.
2. Expresses its concern about the numerous attacks on the lives of human rights defenders in Russia, including lawyers who are representing citizens' rights and journalists; notes with concern that over the past months, several human rights defenders involved in Chechen issues have been killed;
3. Expresses serious concern about the failure of the Russian authorities to bring the murders of human rights defenders to justice; urgently calls upon the Russian authorities to order an immediate, thorough, effective, impartial and transparent investigation into the assassinations, to bring the responsible before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law; welcomes that the Russia's Supreme Court overturned a ruling by a lower court and ordered a new investigation into the killing of Anna Politkovskaya;
4. Calls upon the Russian authorities to guarantee the protection of all human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, in conformity with relevant international and regional human rights instruments, to ensure that an end be put against all acts of harassment or attacks against human rights defenders in the country and that the defense of human rights has not become a deadly activity;
5. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the government and parliament of the Russian Federation.