On June 22 this year the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) studied the report about the situation with human rights in the North Caucasus specially prepared for the summer session by Swiss senator Dick Marty.

During his visit he gathered information about the human rights situation and conditions for human rights defenders in that territory. A lot of information was provided to Mr. Marty by the Joint Mobile Group working in the Chechen Republic since November last year. Following the trip, the senator prepared a detailed report which, in the opinion of human rights defenders, entirely covers the current state of affairs in the region and the development prospective. 

Having considered Mr. Marty’s report, the Assembly passed a resolution about the situation in the region.   In the resolution it invited the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to pay utmost attention to the development of the human rights situation in the North Caucasus and assign itself the monitoring of the Russian Federation’s commitments. Besides, the resolution called on the Russian authorities to investigate all torture claims and bring to trial in accordance with the law all culprits of human rights violations, including members of the security forces. The PACE urged Russia to intensify co-operation with the Council of Europe in enforcing the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights concerning the situation in the North Caucasus. The resolution also pointed to the need of closer cooperation between the authorities and the organisations working on the ground in defence of human rights and of civil society as a whole.