Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

Human rights organizations working on Chechnya faced problems of access to Chechnya and to official information, and petty harassment. Despite oral assurances that Human Rights Watch would be granted access to Chechnya, this was not the case. Memorial, a leading Russian rights group, also continued to face difficulties working inside Chechnya. Human rights workers faced occasional harassment from police and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Numerous appeals by Human Rights Watch for information from the Russian authorities went unanswered.

Other human rights activists also faced occasional problems with authorities. For example, on August 28 masked police commandos stormed the office of a human rights organization, the Glasnost Foundation, without any apparent reason. The police carrying out the raid taunted Sergei Grigoriants, the head of the organization, with the knowledge that he was a former dissident who had spent time in prison for his political activities in Soviet times.