Council of Europe Commissioner called on Interior Minister Kolokoltsev to stop detaining peaceful protesters

Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatović sent a letter to the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev in connection with massive violations of human rights at peaceful protests. This was reported on the official website of the Council of Europe.

“Dear Minister! I am writing to you to raise certain issues regarding human rights. They are related to the actions of the police at the demonstrations that took place in many Russian cities over the past few weeks,” writes Mijatović regarding the protests in support of Alexei Navalny on January 23 and 31 (translation published by Kommersant).

The main points of Commissioner Mijatović:

1. Russian authorities have failed to fulfill their obligations to ensure freedom of assembly;
2. restrictions imposed in connection with the coronavirus pandemic do not comply with international human rights standards;
3. mass detentions at rallies on January 23 and 31 across the country are arbitrary;
4. many people detained during the protests were reportedly ill-treated while in custody.

Mijatović requested information from Kolokoltsev about the rules, methods and instructions applied by law enforcement officers regarding the dispersal of peaceful assemblies and the imprisonment of peaceful demonstrators , as well as clarification regarding the reasons for the detention of journalists and media workers covering these rallies.

The commissioner also asked for data on actions taken by the authorities to hold law enforcement officers accountable for any cases of arbitrary use of force or other human rights violations against protesters.

Emphasizing the scale of detentions at peaceful rallies, Mijatović referred to data from OVD-Info.

In conclusion, the commissioner called on Kolokoltsev to promote an immediate end to the practice of detaining peaceful protesters, and the Russian authorities to bring the work of law enforcement agencies during demonstrations into line with human rights standards .

• Alexey Navalny has been in custody since January 18: at the request of the Federal Penitentiary Service, he was arrested for 30 days pending consideration of a petition to replace the suspended sentence with a real one in the Yves Rocher case . In connection with Navalny’s arrest, a series of protests took place throughout Russia; mass rallies took place on Saturday, January 23, Sunday, January 31, and February 2 (the day Navalny’s suspended sentence was replaced with a real one). The security forces reacted harshly to the protests: on January 23, more than 4,000 people were detained, on January 31, more than 5,500 , and on February 2 , more than 1,400 people .