Posts Tagged ‘human rights’
A Discussion With Russian Civil Society Leaders
BY THOMAS O. MELIA / APRIL 26, 2012
Thomas O. Melia serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
Today I was delighted to welcome to the State Department a dozen inspiring civil society advocates from Russia who work tirelessly to protect the human rights and dignity of prisoners, and for the rule of law. We were joined by Deputy Secretary William Burns, formerly our ambassador to Russia, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald K. Steinberg and Assistant Administrator Alexander, as well as Mark Kappelhoff, Chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. As we are seeing increasingly in Russia and in many countries across the globe, the United States included, civil society is an essential driver of progress and accountability on an array of important issues, including prison reform.
Prison reform, including prisoner’s rights, is a central theme for the Civil Society Working Group (CSWG) of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, established in 2009 by Presidents Obama and Medvedev. I co-chair the CSWG along with Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy, and Rule of Law. The United States and Russia share an obligation under international law to protect the human rights of people in our custody. Through the CSWG we are connecting activists from across the United States and Russia who are working for improvements in prison conditions and the protection of the human rights of inmates.
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Updated Magnitsky Act Introduced in U.S. Congress
An updated bill imposing a visa ban and asset freeze on Russian officials allegedly linked to the death in custody of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as on “individuals responsible for other gross violations of human rights” in Russia has been introduced in the U.S. Congress.
Magnitsky, who worked for Hermitage Capital, a British investment fund, died in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in Moscow in November 2009, almost a year after being arrested on tax evasion charges. He suffered from untreated pancreatitis and gallstones. Two former prison doctors have been charged with negligence in connection with his death, but a criminal case against one of them was recently dropped.
Just days before his arrest, Magnitsky claimed to have uncovered a massive fraud in which Moscow tax and police officials had allegedly embezzled $230 million in tax rebates by taking over Hermitage subsidiaries and using them to claim tax rebates. His supporters say the legal case investigators launched against him was a means for the same security officials he had accused to muzzle him and stop his activities.
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Nocera Hits the Bulls-Eye on Magnitsky Act
Seth Mandel
04.17.2012 – 12:45 PM
President Obama has been decrying “the way Congress does its business these days” and promising to act “with or without this Congress,” so fed up is he by the lack of bipartisan solutions coming from the legislative branch. So the president, one would think, would be delighted that Congress has come together to produce a bipartisan, popular bill that would also give the president a strong foreign policy move while simultaneously beefing up his credentials on human rights and democracy.
I’m talking, of course, about the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011,” a bill that would sanction Russian human rights offenders. It is named after the Russian attorney who was detained without trial for investigating Russian corruption and then beaten and left to die in prison. It is intended to replace the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik amendment, aimed at getting the Soviet Union to allow Jewish emigration, but which is outdated and will likely be repealed now that Russia is joining the World Trade Organization. The bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin and has broad bipartisan support. But Obama staunchly opposes the bill. Today, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera adds his voice to the growing chorus of commentators, both liberal and conservative, who support the bill:
I have to confess that when I first began receiving press releases about this effort, which has gained traction in Europe as well as the U.S., I didn’t take it very seriously. Visa restrictions didn’t seem like much of a price for allowing an innocent lawyer to die in prison. But after watching the reaction of the Russian government, which has repeatedly and vehemently denounced the bill — and which is now, out of pure spite, prosecuting Magnitsky posthumously — I’ve come to see that it really does hit these officials where it hurts them most.
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A Partial Declaration of Human Rights
For years, Russia has tolerated the State Department’s annual criticism of its human rights situation, but not anymore.
It was in April that Moscow finally lost patience. If America would not stop poking it with the human rights stick, it said (though not in precisely those words), Russia would pick up the stick, too. It appointed a human rights commissioner and promised to publish probes of its own.
Its first publication, a “Report on the situation concerning human Rights in certain states” came out last month [link in Russian]. It is extremely revealing, though not perhaps for the reasons its author, Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s new commissioner for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, intended.
“The idea is to show that problems in the sphere of human rights and democracy are present in all states. No one is ideal,” Dolgov explained to Kommersant Vlast after the report was published on the Foreign Ministry website.
“We do not accept attempts to persistently and intrusively teach us democracy. Sadly, some of our partners have used such tactics. It is of course important for them to carefully read the Russian report.”
If they do read the report, carefully or otherwise, they will find that many of its general concerns – domestic violence in Finland, detainee abuse in Britain, anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe – are identical to those in its American rival. Many of the sources are the same, too. Dolgov’s document is studded with references to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House.
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Poking with the human rights stick
Critical human rights reports from Western agencies have long been the source of consternation among Russian officials. At the end of last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry launched a counterattack, publishing a report highlighting supposed violations in the West. Oliver Bullough was surprised at how readily the document conflated issues of rights and common diplomacy.
Moscow loses patience
For years, Russia has tolerated the State Department’s annual criticism of its human rights situation, but not any more.
It was in April that Moscow finally lost patience. If America would not stop poking it with the human rights stick, it said (though not in precisely those words), Russia would pick up the stick too. It appointed a human rights commissioner and promised to publish probes of its own.
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Why Some Russians Need the West’s Help
“The West will help us.”
Ostap Bender’s famous phrase from Ilf and Petrov’s “The 12 Chairs” may have been on Konstantin Fetisov’s mind when he met with Michael Posner — U.S. assistant secretary of state for the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor — in the Moscow region a week ago.
Fetisov is a leader of the movement opposing the construction of the Kremlin-supported $8 billion Moscow-St. Petersburg highway that will travel through the Khimki forest. He was beaten badly by unidentified assailants last November, leaving him with impaired speech and memory loss.
During his meeting with Fetisov, Posner said the United States needs to “redouble” its efforts to press Russia on protecting human rights.
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Ambassador Johnson On Rule Of Law: Legislative Transparency, Independence Of The Judiciary, Right To A Fair Trial
The rule of law underpins all of our human dimension commitments. Today, we will focus on certain elements of rule of law—legislative transparency, independence of the judiciary and the right to a fair trial. But, I think it is useful to pause for a moment to consider what we mean when we talk about rule of law. In a speech a few years ago while acknowledging the risks of “formulating something too insufficient for the great purpose behind the phrase,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, set out a working definition of the rule of law. According to Justice Kennedy, there are three main components:
First: “The law is superior to, and thus binds, the government and all its officials.”
Second: “The law must respect and preserve the dignity, equality, and human rights of all persons. To those ends, the law must establish and safeguard the constitutional structures necessary to build a free society in which all citizens have a meaningful voice in shaping and enacting the rules that govern them.”
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Statement on the US President’s Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov
Statement by the Press Secretary on the President’s Meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov
President Obama met with Foreign Minister Lavrov today and discussed a range of bilateral and international issues. The President thanked the Foreign Minister for his efforts to complete a new bilateral agreement on visa liberalization as well as a new agreement on adoptions, both of which will touch many lives in Russia and the United States.
President Obama expressed his support for Russia’s efforts to mediate a political solution in Libya, emphasizing that the United States is prepared to support negotiations that lead to a democratic transition in Libya as long as Qadhafi steps aside. Both parties discussed the need to continue cooperation towards a peaceful transition in Sudan and South Sudan.
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The Sergei Magnitsky Case: An Admission of Guilt
On July 5 the Russian Human Rights Council published its report on the now infamous—and mysterious—death of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. An attorney for the Moscow-based American law firm Firestone Duncan, he represented Hermitage Capital, which was at the time the largest Western hedge fund in Russia.
Magnitsky died while in custody awaiting trial for a fabricated tax evasion charge. He was jailed after he accused Russian officials of fraudulently obtaining $230 million in tax rebates from the Russian Treasury using a sophisticated swindle. These were the same officials who prosecuted Hermitage and barred its owner, Bill Browder, from returning to Russia for reasons the state refused to reveal.
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