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The United Nations Commission on Human Rights should:
- Adopt a resolution condemning ongoing violations of human
rights and humanitarian law by both sides of the conflict, andspecifically
condemn the widespread and systematic pattern of enforced disappearances
in Chechnya as a crime against humanity. The resolution should call on the
Russian government to immediately end the practice of enforced
disappearances and take measures for their prevention in the future;
- Call on Russia to invite key U.N. thematic mechanisms,
particularly the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances,
the Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions;
- Insist on accountability. The resolution should call on
the Russian authorities to ensure meaningful investigations into all reported
crimes by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces against civilians in
Chechnya, and specifically require the prosecution of the perpetrators of
enforced disappearances; it should call on the Russian authorities to
publish a detailed list of all current and past investigations into such
abuses and indicate their current status;
- Renew its call for a national commission of inquiry to
document abuses by both sides of the conflict and make clear that Russian
authorities’ continued failure to make progress on accountability will
result in the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to
document and produce an official record of abuses;
- Encourage individual member states to prosecute the
perpetrators of enforced disappearances in Chechnya under the principle of
universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity;
- Ask all member states to cooperate towards the prompt
completion of a strong international treaty to prevent and punish enforced
disappearances.
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