2009 ORDINARY SESSION

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(Second part)

REPORT

Twelfth sitting

Tuesday 28 April 2009 at 10 a.m.

Mr HERKEL (Estonia). – I liked this report very much from the moment I read its title because it is about a very important aspect: not only the defence of human rights, but the necessity of protecting human rights defenders.

      I remember an episode that took place in this hall several years ago. It was when we were discussing the human rights situation in Chechnya – a topic too much forgotten now, unfortunately. Our former colleague, Mr Bindig from Germany, as well as today’s rapporteur, presented the topic. Some of the speakers tried to convince the audience that human rights defenders are biased and extremist and give wrong information to the rapporteurs. I remember well, although probably not word for word, what Mr Bindig answered: that we should condemn not those who are reporting human rights abuses, but those who commit them. That sentence was very impressive for me, at the time a very new member of this Assembly.

Your report, Mr Haibach, is very much along the same lines. It gives us concrete recommendations on how to protect human rights defenders and on the responsibilities of states to help them. A problem that I would like to raise here is the question of who are the real human rights defenders. There are some cases in which they are condemned or accused of being spies and extremists, even by state officials. Another side of the coin is that in some countries there are the so-called GONGOs – that is, governmental non-governmental organisations, created by the authorities. Usually their aims are to convince the international audience or international observers that the real human rights defenders are irrelevant and illegitimate. That can happen, and I have witnessed the problem very much in some countries. Furthermore, the explanatory memorandum says that the problem is probably even more significant.

      Then there are the case studies. One of the previous reports in the last session was about Grigory Pasko, who is also mentioned in the explanatory memorandum. Several cases have already been described by former speakers, but I would like to mention a few others. There is, of course, the case of Stanislav Markelov, the human rights lawyer who was killed in Moscow at the beginning of this year. There was also an attempt to poison another human rights lawyer – Karinna Moskalenko, also from the Russian Federation – and her family, here in Strasbourg, the capital of Europe. It happened in October last year. Clarifications are needed for both cases in future.

      There was one positive note about my last visit to Baku. The criminal case against Leyla Yunus, the human rights defender who had been accused by the Minister of the Interior, was withdrawn.

Terviktekst: http://assembly.coe.int/