Right to protest

The leading human rights organization's annual 300-page report , published yesterday in English, contains information on abuses in 155 countries. The report “Tyranny and Injustice Cannot Continue as Before,” covering the period from January to December 2011, devotes sections to Russia on violations of the rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, torture, persecution of human rights defenders, politically motivated trials (Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev), lack of security in the North Caucasus.

The actions of the Russian authorities were harshly criticized for the mass detentions of participants in peaceful protests after the parliamentary elections on December 4, 2011 - 1,000 people were arrested and 100 were subject to administrative arrests. LGBT activists also continue to face harassment, and their pickets in Moscow and St. Petersburg were banned and dispersed by police.

The report argues that anti-corruption and police reform efforts are lacking, authorities are selectively using anti-extremism legislation to crack down on those they don't want, and journalists are being threatened and attacked for their freedom of speech. Facts mentioned are the unsolved murder of Khadzhimurad Kamalov, editor of the Dagestan weekly Chernovik, on December 15, 2011, and the attack on Kommersant newspaper journalist Oleg Kashin, committed in November 2010.

The information presented is correlated with the facts stated in the reports of leading Russian human rights organizations (see the report of the Moscow Helsinki Group “Human Rights in the Russian Federation”). Violations of the right to freedom of assembly in 2012 have already significantly exceeded the data from the previous year, and the attempt to toughen penalties for organizing peaceful assemblies directly testifies to the “closedness” of the authorities to dialogue with society. In addition, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation V. Putin “On measures to implement the foreign policy of the Russian Federation” dated 05/07/2012. in paragraph “t” on the sphere of international humanitarian relations contains the following alarming wording: “to carry out active work to protect human rights, to counter attempts to use human rights concepts as an instrument of political pressure and interference in the internal affairs of states.”

Apparently in 2012. the pro-Kremlin media will continue the old song about “enemies” and “spies” among public organizations who sleep and see how to spoil their native country.