Russia has demanded to report on gay rights in Chechnya
Fifteen member countries of the Organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE) launched the Vienna mechanism, demanding from Russia to report on human rights violations in Chechnya. The statement was published by the permanent representative of Canada to the OSCE Ambassador Natasha Kuijer.
Upstairs
“The apparent reluctance of the Russian Federation or the inability to cope with these severe human rights violations contributed to a climate of impunity of the authorities of Chechnya. Our delegation, like many others in the Permanent Council continuously expressed concern about those violations for the last 20 months. The reaction of the Russian Federation was insufficient,” — said in a statement.
According to the Vienna mechanism, the participating countries, the OSCE has put to Russia four questions: how the Federal government controlled the fulfillment of obligations of the OSCE in Chechnya, was investigated as a case on violations against LGBT persons and how the conclusion was made about the absence in the region of homosexual people?
Also from Russia wanted to know about tools to free documenting human rights violations through the media and on the investigation of the execution of 27 detained on suspicion of extremism and victims of extrajudicial executions in Grozny in January 2017.
Under the rules, Russia is obliged to give a response within ten days. In case of refusal from among the independent experts will be formed of the extraordinary mission to detect violations of OSCE commitments.
In April 2017, “Novaya Gazeta” published an investigation about the persecution of the Chechen authorities of gays. According to the publication, in Chechnya were massively detained and tortured suspected homosexual orientation, at least three were killed. The scandal received international publicity: against repression and for sexual orientation were made by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and foreign Ministers of five countries of the European Union. Three French LGBT organization, filed the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, a lawsuit in the international criminal court. Press Secretary of the head of Chechnya, Alvi Karimov, said that in Chechnya do not persecute gays, because they are not there.