Russia has ignored a series of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights on Chechnya, fueling unchecked violence in the North Caucasus. Following the recent murders of human rights defenders there, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly will decide on September 28, 2009 whether to schedule a debate to focus on the dangerous conditions for human rights defenders in the North Caucasus.

The president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, should drop his defamation claim against a prominent human rights defender who said Kadyrov was responsible for the murder of the human rights advocate Natalia Estemirova, Human Rights Watch said today. The Russian authorities should not allow the suit to distract from their responsibility to identify those responsible for the killing and to hold them responsible, Human Rights Watch said.

The Russian authorities should take urgent steps to ensure the safety of activists from the human rights group Memorial and investigate suspicious activities that may threaten their safety

Murat Gasayev, an ethnic Chechen accused of participation in an attack on government buildings in Ingushetia in June 2004, was released by Russian authorities without charge on August 28, 2009, after 10 months in pretrial detention.

Natalia Estemirova was Chechnya's great champion of human rights until her kidnap and murder last month. On the 40th day after her death, her friend Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch commemorates a uniquely courageous and selfless woman.

The Russian government should immediately investigate the arson attack today on the office of a human rights group in Dagestan, a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus region.

Russian authorities need to take immediate steps to guarantee the safety of human rights defenders and civic activists in Chechnya. Russia should also promptly investigate the harassment and threats in recent days by local security services against staff members of the Memorial Human Rights Center in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.