Seminar: Human rights violations in Chechnya
On 30 July 2008, EHRAC, Amnesty International and the Law Society of England and Wales jointly hosted a seminar entitled ‘Human rights violations in Chechnya: Challenging impunity and achieving redress’.
The event was chaired by Tony Fisher of the International Human Rights Committee of the Law Society and the panel speakers were:
Natalia Estemirova, Memorial Human Rights Centre, Grozny, Chechnya
Prof. Philip Leach, EHRAC
Victoria Webb, Amnesty International (International Secretariat)
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Natalia Estemirova speaking at the seminar held at the Law Society |
Panel - left to right: Natalia Estemirova, Victoria Webb, Philip Leach, Tony Fisher |
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Natalia Estemirova spoke about Chechen cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the difficulties involved in preparing these cases. She gave details of a number of decided cases and explained the importance of these judgments to the Chechen people as a whole. |
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Prof. Leach gave an overview of the European Court’s existing judgments in Chechen cases. He criticised the Russian Government’s response to these judgments and also explained how the European Court could take a tougher line with Russia as regards Chechnya. Victoria Webb spoke about the current situation in Chechnya focusing on the challenges of tackling impunity in the region. She outlined Amnesty International and the international community’s responses to these challenges and Russia’s resistance to international scrutiny. |
