Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following press release from the Council of Europe.
Asian Human Rights Commission
Hong Kong
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A Press Release from the Council of Europe forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
Press release – CommDH039(2011) — Council of Europe
Strasbourg, 29/11/2011 – Assassinations of human rights defenders, investigative journalists, activist lawyers and critical opinion makers have not been seriously investigated in a number of critical cases. These flagrant examples have come to symbolise the phenomenon of impunity, which encourages further murders and has a chilling effect on public debate, says Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in his latest Human Rights Comment published today.
There has been an escalation of such politically-motivated killings during the past decade. The individual tragedies of the victims’ deaths have been compounded by suspicions of cover-ups in their aftermath.
A pattern of impunity
In Ukraine, the September 2000 kidnapping and killing of Georgiy Gongadze, followed by an abject failure to effectively investigate the case, remains an emblematic example of how impunity manifests itself. Incoherency and passivity on the part of successive prosecutors appears to be tied to the fact that some of those implicated in the plot have been or still remain in influential positions.
The investigations into the murders of Elmar Huseynov in Azerbaijan (March 2005) and Hrant Dink in Turkey (January 2007), both prominent newspaper editors, have similarly been unacceptably slow and have pursued too narrow a scope of inquiry. The handling of the Gongadze and Dink cases has already been condemned in judgements from the European Court of Human Rights, while the Huseynov case has now also been brought to the Strasbourg Court.
The case of Natalia Estemirova in the Russian Federation seems to fit a similar pattern. She was abducted from her doorstep in Grozny in July 2009 and later found murdered. Like in most other cases of disappearances and murders in the Chechen Republic, the investigation has encountered serious obstacles, including a lack of co-operation from police and security officials.
Corrosive implications of impunity
These cases have attracted international attention, but there are many other known examples of contract or collusion killings. Those responsible for orchestrating these types of murders appear to be rooted in non-democratic political circles, police or security structures, or criminal gangs – whose interests often overlap.
Justice is not being done in such cases. There is a suspicion that the very persons who order these crimes – or their superiors or proxies – also exercise sufficient influence over the competent state authorities to prevent, pervert, impede or prolong the official investigations, rendering them ineffective.
Strong determination in the fight against impunity is absolutely crucial to deter further crimes, uphold the rule of law and protect public trust in the justice system. Not least, this is a matter of redress for the victims.
Enhancing the effectiveness of investigations
Concerned about the number of serious human rights violations that have not been clarified, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted concrete Guidelines on measures governments should take to eradicate impunity.
The Guidelines, agreed in March 2011, seek to “prevent and combat an institutional culture within state authorities which promotes impunity”. They stress the importance of effective investigations and define detailed criteria to ensure adequacy, thoroughness, independence, promptness and public scrutiny.
Allied to this principled approach, it is vital that prosecutors, whistle-blowers and witnesses in sensitive investigations are afforded effective mechanisms to guarantee their personal security. It must be made clear that, beyond the punishments that are served to perpetrators, state officials who knowingly tolerate impunity will also be brought to account.
All these measures are obvious in a society where the rule of law prevails. However, we have learned that resistance against accountability efforts can be extremely tenacious – and vicious – in politically-motivated cases. The only true antidote to impunity is to ensure that all the co-conspirators are brought to justice – whoever they may be.
Press contact in the Commissioner’s Office: Stefano Montanari, + 33 (0)6 61 14 70 37; stefano.montanari@coe.int;
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