Warsaw: presentation of the FIDH report "Society under control: inappropriate implementation of measures to combat terrorism and extremism in Russia"

On October 1, 2009, within the framework of the annual Warsaw conference on the human dimension, a briefing "Abuse of the fight against terrorism and extremism in Russia" was held, organized by the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) with the participation of the Civic Assistance Committee and the organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights" ( both are Russia). At the briefing, the FIDH report "Society under control: inappropriate application of measures to combat terrorism and extremism in Russia" was presented (the presentation of the report in Russia took place on July 23, 2009 ).

The briefing was attended by Soukhair Belhassen (FIDH President), Elena Ryabinina (Civic Assistance), Svetlana Isayeva (Mothers of Dagestan).

Ms. Souhair Belhassen drew the attention of the audience to the fact that since September 11, 2001, under the pretext of combating the terrorist threat, human rights have come under significant pressure. She stressed that torture, secret prisons, extrajudicial executions, etc. extreme manifestations of human rights violations under the pretext of combating the terrorist threat, recorded over the years in different countries of the world, are unacceptable and are not justified in any way.

Elena Ryabinina in her speech focused on the problem of the persecution of the followers of the so-called "non-traditional" Islam in Russia (the persecution of members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the banning of Said Nursi's books, etc.). In her opinion, such a policy is in fact a policy of forced radicalization. A situation is being created in which a citizen, whose entire fault lies only in the fact that he professes religious views "wrongly", has no place in the legal field.

Svetlana Isaeva spoke about kidnappings and falsification of data on the fight against terrorism in the North Caucasus.

Then a lively discussion took place, in which the main attention was focused on the spread of negative anti-terrorist practices in the area of ​​the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the spread of anti-extremist law enforcement to texts of strictly religious content.