As countries across the world and in Central Eurasia increasingly turn their attention and resources to counter terrorism measures, it is essential to reaffirm states’ obligation to protect human rights in this work. As the leading global body on counter terrorism, the CTC sets the standards for work in this field and, as per Security Council Resolution 1456, has an obligation to ensure respect for human rights in counter terrorism efforts by member states. We believe it is crucial for you to exercise leadership at the meeting in Almaty because the region has faced horrific acts of terrorism but is also home to governments that that commit serious human rights violations in the context of counter terror measures.
Your Excellency,
We are writing on the eve of the meeting of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in Almaty, Kazakhstan to ask that you use this opportunity to raise greater awareness among your partners in the region about the importance of respect for human rights in counter terror measures.
As countries across the world and in Central Eurasia increasingly turn their attention and resources to counter terrorism measures, it is essential to reaffirm states’ obligation to protect human rights in this work. As the leading global body on counter terrorism, the CTC sets the standards for work in this field and, as per Security Council Resolution 1456, has an obligation to ensure respect for human rights in counter terrorism efforts by member states. We believe it is crucial for you to exercise leadership at the meeting in Almaty because the region has faced horrific acts of terrorism but is also home to governments that that commit serious human rights violations in the context of counter terror measures.
The recently released report of the High Level Panel on Threats noted that the global counter terrorism effort “has in some instances corroded the very values that terrorists target: human rights and the rule of law” and has called attention to the vital need for a legal framework that is respectful of civil liberties and human rights in this international effort.
Governments have the right and obligation to protect their citizens from terrorism and to conduct investigations into terrorist acts in order to identify those responsible and bring them to justice. In that effort, governments must defend the very principles that terrorism and violence assault. In prosecuting the alleged perpetrators, governments must themselves uphold the rule of law, including their international human rights commitments, many of which remain absolute even in times of the greatest national emergency.
We look to you to reinforce this approach in your discussions with partners in the region, and in particular with Uzbekistan and Russia, two countries that arguably have faced the most lethal terrorist attacks in the region but that also have poor human rights records. Below we explain how the experience of these two countries is illustrative of the dangers of weakening human rights while combating terrorism.
Uzbekistan
In 1999, bombings in Tashkent took the lives of 16 people. In 2004, Uzbekistan was shaken by two major episodes of violence—bombings and shootings in Tashkent and Bukhara in late March and early April, and bombings of the U.S. and Israeli embassies and the General Prosecutor’s office in Tashkent on July 30.
The danger Uzbekistan faces is real. However, the Uzbek government undermines its counter terrorism campaign by using it to justify gross human rights abuses in two distinct ways.
First, the government uses the threat of terrorism to justify the criminalization of “fundamentalist” religious thought, affiliations, beliefs and practices. (The law does not define this term.) In taking this approach, the government fails to distinguish between those who advocate or engage in violence and those who peacefully express their religious beliefs. It has used the 2004 violence to give new validation to this campaign but for years has imprisoned on “fundamentalism” charges individuals whose peaceful Islamic beliefs, practices, and affiliations fell outside of strict government controls. An accumulated total of about 7,000 people are believed to have been imprisoned since the government’s campaign against independent Islam began in the mid-1990s. Those persecuted in this way for their religious beliefs are also systematically subjected to torture and ill-treatment in custody as well as to violations of fair trial protections.
Implicating whole categories of religious believers as connected to “terrorism” produces the sort of discrimination and denial of protection that is inimical to a society that respects human rights. It also alienates whole sectors of the population from the effort to combat terrorist activities, as they see their beliefs stigmatized and used as a rationale for persecution.
Second, the Uzbek government does not respect basic due process and fair trial protections in its trials of terror suspects. The government has already tried approximately one hundred people on terrorism, murder, and other charges relating to the March-April 2004 violence, and trials are on-going. Proceedings monitored by Human Rights Watch and other observers failed to meet international fair trial standards. Many defendants alleged that police had held them incommunicado and used torture, threats, and other pressure to coerce confessions during the investigation. Yet the authorities did not conduct meaningful investigations into these allegations, many of which appear to be substantiated. Unfair trials of terror suspects in Uzbekistan that result from gross abuses produce unreliable convictions and false confessions, undermine the rule of law, and frustrate effective counterterrorism efforts.
Russia
In September 2004, Russia endured the worst terrorist attack in its modern history when gunmen seized a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, leading to the massacre of 330 schoolchildren, their teachers, and parents. The attack was led by Chechen gunmen who demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. This followed two prior attacks on civilians in August 2004 that were also linked to Chechen forces, resulting in at least 99 deaths, and 14 attacks since 2002, causing 842 deaths altogether.
The Russian government frames the armed conflict in Chechnya, now in its sixth year, exclusively in the context of fighting terrorism. Its forces in Chechnya have committed acts of enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions on a large scale. The scale of “disappearances” was revealed on December 10, 2004, when Russia’s human rights ombudsman announced that 1700 people had been “abducted” in Chechnya—many of them at the hands of Russian and pro-Russian Chechen forces. Most of these people remain missing to this day; in some cases, their corpses were found in unmarked graves. The Russian government has refused to establish a meaningful accountability process for such abuses. As a result, the vast majority of perpetrators of these acts remain unpunished.
The spiral of abusive behavior on both sides of the conflict has ominous implications for all aspects of human rights in Russia. The independent media have steadily succumbed to both state and popular disfavor, civil society organizations are under greater pressure, and discrimination against Chechens outside Chechnya has only worsened.
Five years of unchecked abuses have also had disastrous consequences for the level of trust in Russian state institutions among ordinary Chechens. Alienating the very community whose cooperation is essential for effective counter terror measures seems destined to undermine these measures.
The Uzbek and Russian examples underscore the importance of ensuring that states’ counter terror measures comply with their fundamental human rights obligations. The forthcoming meeting is an excellent opportunity for the CTC to reach out to its partners in the region, and in particular among the Uzbek and Russian governments, about the need and obligation to protect rights while combating terrorism. We hope that as a result, human rights will have a stronger place in debates about counter terrorism and regional security in the Central Eurasia region.
We thank you for your attention to this letter and wish you a productive meeting.
Sincerely,
Joanna Weschler
United Nations Advocacy Director
Rachel Denber
Acting Executive Director
Europe and Central Asia Division
Cc:
Members of the United Nations Security Council
