On 29 January in the office of the Ombudsman in the Republic of Chechnya, Dutch Human Rights Ambassador in Russia Arjen Hamburger met the Ombudsman and representatives of Chechen human rights NGOs. Lawyer Supyan Baskhanov, head of the Chechen representation of INGO “Committee against Torture” also took part in the meeting.

   The Dutch Human Rights Ambassador in Russia visited Chechnya in the framework of his trip to the North Caucasian republics to monitor the situation with human rights.

   The Ambassador discussed the issues of human rights protection in Chechnya and problems of human rights NGOs and public organizations.

   In his turn, Mr. Baskhanov spoke about the Committee’s activity mentioning the facts of police abuse that are being investigated. Mr. Baskhanov underlined that not all citizens who had suffered from tortures or violent treatment applied to the Committee against Torture, and there were many more torture facts that were not registered. However, we can assume that torture application has decreased in Chechnya.