Europe and Central Asia

While the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya in Russia has attracted much attention this level of violence is a daily occurence in many countries of the Europe and Central Asia region. Human rights defenders are often arrested and tortured in Belarus, the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan and Turkey. In Western Europe defenders acting on behalf of minorities are sometimes at risk

Human rights defenders are often perceived and portrayed as enemies of the state and are pursued with particular rigour in the Russian Federation Belarus and Uzbekistan as well as many other countries throughout the region.

Europe

In Serbia attacks have continued against human rights defenders with the apparent complicity of the state authorities. Those mainly targeted are human rights defenders campaigning for investigations into past human rights abuses and in favour of co-operation with the War Crimes Tribunal. In Turkey writers, journalists and lawyers continue to face repeated and protracted prosecutions to make life difficult and frustrate their work for human rights. Legislation relating to the denigration of the institutions of state is regularly used to target human rights defenders. Turkish human rights defenders acting on behalf of members of the Kurdish minority have been a particular target.

Almost all NGO's in Belarus have lost their legal status since 2003 while legislation introduced in 2005 allows the persecution of human rights defenders working in un-registered organisations and who as a result face prison terms.

In the Russian Federation new legislation on the registration of NGOs has set out to limit the activity of international NGOs in Russia and at the same time use bureaucratic procedures to make it extremely difficult to register national NGOs as well as giving the state the right to interfere in their affairs. Organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had to close their offices temporarily but small local NGOs such as the Russian Chechen Friendship Society are hit hard. The latter has been accused of links to terrorism because of its work in Chechnya and has had to close its office. LGBTI defenders in the Russian Federation have also been targeted. The Gay Pride March was banned in Moscow and no attempt was made to prevent attacks on those taking part in the banned march by right wing and orthodox groups.

Gay pride marches have also been banned in Lithuania and Moldova. In Poland gay human rights defenders have been attacked and harassed in a campaign of public villification while the State Prosecutor has called for an audit of the finances of LGBTI groups. In Greece defenders working on behalf of Roma people are subjected to judicial harassment and campaigns of villification

Central Asia

Human rights defenders who uphold civil, political and religious rights are often targeted for brutal and systematic repression in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan the government arrested those who campaigned for an investigation into the Andijan massacre, including confining them to the psychiatric wing of the prison hospital as a further form of punishment. Across the region the trend has been one of increased repression whose main aim seems to be to silence human rights defenders and shut down any perceived opposition.

In Kyryzstan despite some opening up after the “Tulip Revolution” the government has once again sought to harass human rights defenders by imposing more bureaucratic controls such as audits and inspections which have been particularly aimed at organisations which receive foreign funds.

In Turkmenistan human rights defenders have been arrested, imprisoned and tortured, in some cases resulting in deaths in custody. In Turkmenistan it is impossible to to operate as an NGO in any structured way and individuals who have commented publicly on human rights have been arrested . Human rights defenders who have been interviewed by foreign news services have also been arrested and face lengthy prison terms. Even where human rights defenders have gone into exile their relatives have been targeted.

In Tadjikistan a new NGO law proposed for early 2007, would severely limit the activities of human rights defenders to those activities considered “for the common good”. In Georgia NGOs working on behalf of minorities are regularly targeted.