UK Criticizes Situation with Human Rights in Russia

In its most recent (2010) annual report entitled “Human Rights and Democracy,” the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), criticized the human rights situation in Russia. According to the report, despite minor reforms and some encouraging public statements about human rights in 2010, there was no evidence of systemic, far-reaching change. Continuing negative trends included restrictions on freedom of assembly, harassment and obstruction of NGOs and journalists, and racial discrimination and racist violence. The trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev was widely condemned for failing to adhere to basic standards of justice. No new information emerged in the investigations of the murders of human rights activists Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova or in the investigation of the death of Sergei Magnitsky while in police custody. Frequent reports of grave human rights abuses in the North Caucasus continued. The Russian government also failed to provide full redress to victims of past abuses in Chechnya and elsewhere in the region, the FCO report states. http://gazeta.ru/politics/2011/04/04_a_3574069.shtml http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/htcdn/Human-Rights-and-Democracy-The-2010-Foreign-Commonwealth-Report.pdf (report)