To the Governments of the EU Member States and the Russian Federation, the Federal Assembly of , the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the EU Council Secretary General

Moscow September 5, 2005

Dear Sirs,

We are writing this letter as a follow up to our previous letter to you from July 19 this year concerning the second round of human rights consultations between Russia and the European Union to be held on September 8, 2005 in Brussels. We would like to reiterate once again that Russian human rights organisations strongly welcome these consultations and are firmly convinced that they may develop into an important instrument of protecting human rights, strengthening stability, and promoting democratic values in Europe.

At the same time, based on our recent observations, we are afraid that official discussions on human rights between the EU and Russia may be insulated from the public sphere turning into a routine diplomatic exercise, or worse, developing into mere “consultations for the sake of consultations,” that is, into just an imitation of a meaningful dialogue. We expressed this concern in our previous communication and suggested that in order to remedy the situation Russian and international human rights NGOs should be given a certain role to play in the EU-Russia dialogue on these issues. In particular, they should be informed of the agenda, acquire the possibility to make their suggestions on agenda items and supply the sides with agenda-related materials.

We would like to reconfirm our belief that representatives of Russian and international NGOs should be given the right to be accredited at official consultations and that this right should be extended at each particular meeting to those NGOs that supplied relevant materials and were recommended by at least one of the sides. It is also essential that government delegations invite experts from key human rights NGOs to contribute to the actual discussion. At the very least, political consultations should be doubled by preceding expert consultations on the items of the agenda with NGO participation in order to feed into the process, drawing upon positive experiences of EU-China and EU-Iran comprehensive human rights dialogues.

Equally important, in our July 19 letter we outlined some priority topics for the inclusion in the agenda of the next two rounds of the consultations. We would like to stand by these suggestions:

1 1. Observation of Human Rights by the Law Enforcement Agencies and Reform of the Law Enforcement System 2. Counterterrorism Struggle and Human Rights. Protection of Human Rights as an Important Element of Ensuring Security 3. Observation of Electoral Rights 4. Freedom of the Media 5. Persecution for Political Convictions and Problems of the Independence of the Judicial System 6. The Rights of the Military Servicemen and Alternative Servicemen 7. Migration and Human Rights, Ethnic Discrimination and Racially-Motivated Violence

Our July letter was positively received by governments of several EU member states. We highly appreciate their respectful reaction to our communication and their interest in our suggestions. Following on the letter, upon request of several European governments, Russian human rights NGOs provided briefing papers on some of these topics. Further on, in early August, the UK Embassy in organised a special briefing for Russian human rights defenders with a group of British officials, as the United Kingdom, holding the EU Presidency, is in the lead of organising the September consultations in Brussels. At that meeting, Russian human rights defenders made their presentations on the aforementioned topics and discussed with the UK officials the prospects for the up-coming consultations. While the data and the advice of Russian NGOs were heartily welcomed by the British Government, the human rights defenders were told that their direct participation in the governmental consultations was not possible, as that would go against the regular procedure of official bilateral consultations.

We appreciate rules and traditions of diplomatic interaction. However, we, together with our partners in international human rights NGOs, hold a strong conviction that both Russia and the EU will profit from an open public discussion on human rights and from joint quest for solutions. We very much hope that an innovative and yet appropriate format can be designed and agreed upon that would allow for participation of human rights NGOs in further rounds of consultations. “Where is the will, there is a way,” we believe. On our side, we are quite willing to discuss with all interested sides various possible formats and avenues of NGO participation in further consultations. We truly hope that government officials and members of the public will be able to develop common approaches to their interaction in correspondence with modern democratic values. After all, it is these shared democratic values that are at the basis of EU-Russia dialogue. However, we have felt we could not just sit and wait until a new format is developed. Human rights needs are too pressing. Unable to contribute to the official proceedings of the dialogue this time,

2 Russian human rights defenders deemed it necessary to come to Brussels on the day of the second round of official consultations and organise, in cooperation with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), special public hearings on which will be open to the media, governmental officials and the interested public. At these full-day hearings, leading human rights experts from Moscow and the Northern Caucasus will give talks and answer questions on the priority human rights issues, with a special focus on the situation in and around the so-called zone of counter-terrorist operation. Date and time of the hearings are September 8, 10.00 – 18.00; the venue will be Hotel Tulip Inn, Avenue du Boulevard 17, Brussels. We would be very happy if official representatives from both Russian and the EU sides are able to attend the hearings and are asking you to consider this letter an invitation to come. An agenda of the hearings with a list of speakers and themes can be found in the attachment to this letter.

These alternative human rights hearings to be held in parallel to the second round of the official consultations represent an invitation on our behalf to a public discussion that is so essential for making the EU-Russia dialogue on human rights a success. We very much hope that they will serve as an impetus for active search by EU and Russia of the ways to accommodate the desire and interest of the members of the non-governmental community in participating in the bilateral dialogue which is so fundamentally important for the peaceful and stable future of our continent.

We very much look forward to receiving your response as well as to continuing our discussions on human rights, be it in the framework of bilateral consultations or through other avenues.

Sincerely yours,

Sergey Kovalev, Chair, Historical, Educational, Human Rights and Charitable Society “” Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Council, “Memorial” Human Rights Center Valentina Melnikova, Executive Secretary, Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees of Russia Ludmila Alekseeva, Chairperson, Moscow Helsinki Group Lev Ponomarev, Executive Director, All-Russia Movement for Human Rights Tanya Lokshina, Chair of the Board , the “Demos” Center Yuri Dzhibladze, President, Center for Development of Democracy and Human Rights Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairperson, “Civic Assistance” Committee Alexey Simonov, President, Glasnost Defense Foundation Andrey Blinushov, Director, Interregional Group “Human Rights Network” Yulia Sereda, Deputy Chairperson, Ryazan Human Rights Society “Memorial” Sergey Khakhaev, Chair of the Board, St. Petersburg Society “Memorial” Vladimir Shnitke, Board Member, St. Petersburg Society “Memorial”

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