The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued a report (PDF) on Strengthening the protection and role of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member States.
The report refers to cases of administrative or judicial harassment of human rights defenders, including those in Russia. The particular attention was drawn to the tax authorities pressure on the ‘Golos-Volga’ organization manager Ludmila Kuzmina, as well as attacks on observers in April 2015 and November 2014.
The document emphasizes the responsibility of member States for the promotion and protection of civil society activists. The Assembly urged to refrain from any acts of intimidation and reprisals against this part of society and to ensure an enabling environment for their work.
‘Too many human rights defenders are paying a high price for their work and their fate should be provided much greater attention of the Council of Europe’s institutions and member States,’ - the report concludes.
We would like to remind that in June 2015 the Russian human rights activists were demanding to punish those guilty of crimes against election observers.
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