‘Bashing about Rights’? Russia and the ‘New’ EU States on Human Rights and Democracy Promotion

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Notes

I am very grateful to the British Academy for a generous research grant, as well as for very useful and perceptive referees' comments (which cannot be fully addressed here but are greatly appreciated); to Graham Timmins and Jackie Gower for their interest and assistance; and to Terry Cox and Sarah Lennon.

This essay necessarily makes reference to statements and actions by NGOs, former officials and others in the post-communist countries. As will be indicated, the post-Soviet states make little distinction between those actors, and between them and their governments, even seeing a ‘conspiracy’ among them. A summation of Russian governmental hostility to both domestic and international NGOs is provided in Carothers (2006). For simplicity this essay uses ‘post-communist’ to refer to those states (or their successors) that had communist rule and were outside the boundaries of the USSR (such as Poland), but also includes the three Baltic republics, which were not originally part of the USSR but annexed to it in World War II. ‘Post-Soviet’ refers to all other states that were part of the USSR. Attention will primarily be given to Russia but it is important, in showing the apparent universality of their human rights policies, that post-communist states have advanced similar criticisms of the human rights record of other post-Soviet regimes that have seen little political change, such as Belarus, and have extended assistance to human rights efforts in other post-Soviet regimes which have undergone change, such as, and perhaps particularly, Ukraine.

The parliamentary assemblies are more active on these issues than their larger organisations, but even so, still relatively ineffective. See Francis (2008, p. 336).

Russian media coverage of, for example, the status of Slavophones in Estonia and Latvia, clearly coincides with the Russian government's official views that the European Union neglects those minorities, and that in turn adds to Moscow's reasons for distrust. For example, see the findings in Kaveshnikov (2007, p. 412).

A Polish study of May 1999 concluded: ‘Relations with countries of Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus do not play a significant role in Slovenia's foreign policy and the Eastern dimension of the ENP [European Neighborhood Policy] was never the subject of any large-scale debate’ (Wojna & Gniazdowski 2009, p. 49).

Author's interview with Polish Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, Warsaw, Poland, 26 June 2009.

Author's interview with Professor Andres Kasekamp, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, Tallinn, Estonia, 6 July 2009, whose insights and knowledge have been extremely helpful.

‘Press Release: Outcome of Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination's Consideration of the Sixth and Seventh Periodic Reports of Estonia on How It Implements the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination’, 28 August 2006, available at: http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/5b42d5531a925e2fc32571d80051852a?OpenDocument, last accessed 14 March 2009.

See footnote 7.

See footnote 7. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also then posted these conclusions on individual Russian embassy websites. See, for example, the Chilean, available at: http://www.chile.mid.ru/mre/e06_341.html, accessed 11 August 2009.

See United Nations, ‘CERD International Convention On the Elimination Of all Forms of Racial Discrimination’, CERD/C/EST/CO/7, 19 October 2006, available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.EST.CO.7-new.pdf, last accessed 19 March 2009.

‘Mission Impossible’, The Economist (UK Edition), 6 January 2007, p. 19.

See ‘Press Release: Adoption at the Second Resumed Session of the UN Human Rights Council of the Russian Draft Resolutions “Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality” and “Integrity of the Judicial System”’, 28 November 2006, citing the unofficial Russian translation, available on the Russian Foreign Ministry website at: http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/cb332044164d757ac3257234005818b4?OpenDocument, last accessed 10 August 2009.

This is not to say that the ECHR has no impact on Russia. The Russian government has faced claims by its own citizens in the ECHR over accusations on abuses conducted in Chechnya and the influence of the ECHR can be found, at least in the margins, to have influenced some aspects of official Russian behaviour. See Fawn (2008).

‘Russian MFA Information and Press Department Commentary Regarding Examination in European Court of Human Rights of the Sysoyevs vs. Latvia Case’, Press Statement posted 6 June 2005, available at: http://www.mid.ru/Brp_4.nsf/arh/BB84499C98376C7BC3257188004F3AA6?OpenDocument, accessed 15 September 2007.

See footnote 14.

Officials at the Council of Europe have commented that the Russian government recognises the rulings of the ECHR, but that implementation can be a different matter. Author's interviews, Strasbourg, France, 18 and 19 June 2009.

Cited in ‘European Human Rights Court Receives Complaints against Georgia’, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 7 October 2008, available at: http://www.rnw.nl/internationaljustice/courts/ECHR/081007-echr-georgia, accessed 17 March 2009.

‘Russia–European Union Consultations on Human Rights in Brussels’, 9 November 2006, available at: http://www.mid.ru/Brp_4.nsf/arh/A0D655523238809CC3257221005AD106?OpenDocument, last accessed 14 March 2009.

Author's interview with Andres Kasekamp, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, Tallinn, Estonia, 6 July 2009.

‘Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov Attends CE, OSCE Leaders Meeting’, Press Release of 22 September 2006, available at: http://www.mid.ru/Brp_4.nsf/arh/9B354ED0698545D1C32571F1004E731F?OpenDocument, accessed 12 November 2007.

See footnote 20.

See ‘Report on the Russian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe’, CM Documents, CM/Inf(2006)47, 14 November 2006, available at: http://www.coe.mid.ru/doc/k15_en.doc, accessed 15 October 2007. See especially Section F, ‘Co-operation with Other International Organisations’, last accessed 11 August 2009.

‘Adoption at the Second Resumed Session of the UN Human Rights Council of the Russian Draft Resolutions “Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality” and “Integrity of the Judicial System”’, 28 November 2006, available at: http://www.mid.ru/Brp_4.nsf/arh/CB332044164D757AC3257234005818B4?OpenDocument, accessed 29 October 2007.

See also Smith (1996, p. 205).

‘Minority Education in Latvia’, available at: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/policy/4641/4642/4643/, posted 9 August 2006, last accessed 16 March 2009.

‘Russians in Latvia—History, Current Status and Prospects—Lecture by Minister Nils Muiznieks to Tubingen University (Germany), 8 November 2004’, available at: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/policy/4641/4642/Muznieks/, last accessed 12 December 2006.

‘United Nations: Russia Supports Bigger Human Rights Role’, Inter Press Service Global Information Network, 22 September 1992.

‘Russian MFA Information and Press Department Commentary Regarding Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Decision to Close the Post-Monitoring Dialogue with Latvia’, 29 June 2006, available at: http://www.coe.mid.ru/doc/dil_en.htm, last accessed 13 March 2009.

‘Transcript of Remarks and Answers to Media Questions by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov on the Results of the Meeting of the Permanent Council of the Russia–EU Partnership at the Foreign Minister Level, Brussels, November 3, 2006’, posted 4 November 2006, available at: http://www.mid.ru/Brp_4.nsf/arh/4F91ECDA8962A171C325721F005E6745?OpenDocument, last accessed 13 March 2009.

‘Foreign Minister Pabriks Welcomes Decision to Close Post-Monitoring Dialogue with Latvia [27 Jun 2006]’, available at: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/news/press-releases/2006/june/27-2/, last accessed 17 March 2009.

Quoted in ‘Baltic Politicians, Experts Comment on Russian Policy’, RFE/RL NEWSLINE, 10, 215, Part I, 21 November 2006.

‘5. Implementation of Resolution 1358 (2004) on the Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Azerbaijan’, Parliamentary Assembly, 2004 Ordinary Session (Fourth Part), 4–8 October 2004, p. 989.

‘5. Implementation of Resolution 1358 (2004) on the Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Azerbaijan’, Parliamentary Assembly, 2004 Ordinary Session (Fourth Part), 4–8 October 2004, p. 991.

An area of general agreement between representatives of older and post-communist state-members of European IOs is that a clampdown on the activities of NGOs, both domestic and foreign-supported, has occurred in Russia and other post-Soviet regimes. The treatment of NGOs has received relatively substantial attention and in itself is not a subject of this essay.

Cited on Czech Radio, 3 March 2004.

See http://www.forum2000.cz/projects/shared-concern-totalitarian-country.php, last accessed 15 March 2009.

See ‘New Slovak Cabinet to Stand Up for Human Rights in Russia, Belarus—Official’, BBC Monitoring, 14 August 2006.

Comments made in the debate on ‘External Relations of the Council of Europe’, 26 June 2006, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2006-3/E/0606261500E.htm, last accessed 16 March 2009.

Debate on ‘External Relations of the Council of Europe’, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2006-3/E/0606261500E.htm, last accessed 16 March 2009.

Heiki Suurkask, ‘My Personal Political Prisoner’, Eesti Paevaleht website, 9 August, reported as ‘Estonian Commentary Criticizes Situation of Human Rights in Belarus’, BBC Monitoring, 11 August 2006.

The Resolution appears, inter alia, on the US Embassy in Minsk's website, available at: http://belarus.usembassy.gov/bdra_house_120806.html, last accessed 1 March 2009.

Proceedings and Debates of the 109th Congress, 2nd Session, Vol. 152, Washington, Thursday, 27 July 2006, No. 101, House of Representatives Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Hon. Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, Thursday, 27 July 2006, available at: http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=305&ContentType=S&ContentRecordType=S&CFID=22489025&CFTOKEN=80999259, last accessed 20 November 2007.

Cited in ‘Polish President Presses for Ukraine in NATO’, International Herald Tribune, 10 February 2006, p. 3.

While this essay notes that rapporteurs—irrespective of nationality—have particular institutional roles, it does seem striking that a post-communist citizen has taken such as strong lead on Belarus in a body often derided for whitewashing human rights abuses.

Severin's report is available at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/102/02/PDF/G0610202.pdf?OpenElement, last accessed 11 March 2009.

See point 15 of Severin's report, available at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/102/02/PDF/G0610202.pdf?OpenElement, last accessed 11 March 2009.

‘Issues of Most Importance to Latvia during the Finnish EU Presidency. Second Half of 2006’, available at: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/eu/Presidencies/Finland/, last accessed 12 March 2009.

‘Human Rights Council Discusses Reports on Situation of Human Rights in Sudan and Belarus, Human Rights Council, Afternoon, September 27, 2006, Hears Report from Chairperson of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’, available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/60CDF810D30A8DB2C12571F7002382F0?opendocument, last accessed 6 March 2009. The comments in defence of Belarus and against Severin unsurprisingly again show differences in understandings of democracy and human rights. Cuba, for example, called the report ‘an anti-communist crusade of the cold war’ and said it ‘was repulsed by the report’. The post-communist governments aligned themselves with Severin's report and raised related questions of matters of concern.

RFE/RL Newsline, 10, 180, Part II, 29 September 2006. To the extent that the Belarus regime may genuinely have feared intervention, even on the scale of Iraq in 2003, consider the comments by Latvian MEP Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis in a European Parliamentary debate on 14 September 2004: ‘Let us not forget that the President of Belarus was a prominent partner of the Iraqi regime and of Saddam Hussein. And this is all happening on the borders of democratic Europe. As a result, it poses a threat not just to the people of Belarus but also to the neighbouring democracies’, available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20040914+ITEM-003+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN&query=INTERV&detail=2-042, last accessed 12 March 2009.

Debate on ‘External Relations of the Council of Europe’, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2006-3/E/0606261500E.htm, last accessed 24 March 2009.

Ironically, however, it may be the death penalty that complicates engagement. PACE requested on 23 June 2009 that the suspension of the Belarus Parliament's special guest status not be lifted until a ‘moratorium on executions has been introduced by the appropriate Belarus authorities’. (‘The Passing of Another Death Sentence in Belarus Shows the Urgent Need for a Moratorium on Executions, According to PACE President’, 2 July 2009, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Press/StopPressView.asp?ID=2191, last accessed 14 July 2009.) Difficulties faced by the CoE in achieving moratoriums or abolition in post-communist states are discussed in Fawn (2001).

While not assigning casualty between Schengen and increased post-communist attention in the EU on Belarus, Kasekamp suggested both developments may have coincided (interview, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, Tallinn, Estonia, 6 July 2009). For its part, the Belarusian governments seemed to be aware of the costs of isolation, especially economic, and in 2008 ‘made an effort to improve relations with the EU’. See Adamski (2009, p. 1).

‘Russians in Latvia—History, Current Status and Prospects—Lecture by Minister Nils Muiznieks to Tubingen University (Germany), 8 November 2004’, available at: http://www.am.gov.lv/en/policy/4641/4642/Muznieks/, last accessed 14 March 2009.

See 2002 Ordinary Session (Second part), Report, Ninth sitting, Monday, 22 April 2002 at 3 pm, PACE debate on ‘Combating Terrorism and Respect for Human Rights’, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2002-1/E/0201241000E.htm, last accessed 10 March 2009.

See, for example, ‘White House Urges Chechnya to Cut Terrorist Ties’, Voice of America, 26 September 2001, available at: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-26-34-White.cfm?moddate=2001-09-26, last accessed 7 November 2007.

See http://www.watchdog.cz/index.php?show=000000-000005-000001-000182-000001-000009&lang=1, last accessed 14 March 2009.

CoE officials, however, stress that by suspending Russian voting rights in the Parliamentary Assembly the Council enacted the most decisive measure against Russia of any intergovernmental body. Author's interview, Strasbourg, France, 19 June 2009.

See the debate relating to ‘Progress Report of the Bureau and Standing Committee’, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2002-2/E/0204221500E.htm, last accessed 6 March 2009.

See the debate following ‘Russia. Presentation by Mr Atkinson and Mr Bindig of Report of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Doc. 9396)’, in 2002 Ordinary Session (Second part), Report, Tenth Sitting, Tuesday 23 April 2002 at 10 am, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2002-2/E/0204231000E.htm, last accessed 9 March 2009.

Motion for a Resolution 11 January 2006, European Parliament, available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/seance_pleniere/textes_deposes/prop_resolution/2006/0028/P6_B(2006)0028_EN.pdf">http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/seance_pleniere/textes_deposes/prop_resolution/2006/0028/P6_B(2006)0028_EN.pdf, last accessed 9 March 2009.

17th EU–Russia Summit (26 May 2006), 13 June 2006, proceedings available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20060613+ITEM-014+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN, last accessed 10 March 2009.

2006 Ordinary Session, Third Part, Report, Sixteenth Sitting, 26 June 2006, available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/Records/2006-3/E/0606261500E.htm, last accessed 16 March 2009.

The letter was carried in numerous newspapers. The English language version is available on Havel's Forum 2000 website, available at: http://www.forum2000.cz/projects/shared-concern-chechnya.php, last accessed 15 March 2009.

‘Russia Strikes Back at Poland for Diplomat's Comments’, Chechnya Weekly, The Jamestown Foundation, 6, 11, 16 March 2006, available at: http://www.jamestown.org/programs/ncw/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=2202&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=187&no_cache=1, last accessed 18 March 2009.

‘Russia Strikes Back at Poland for Diplomat's Comments’, Chechnya Weekly, The Jamestown Foundation, 6, 11, 16 March 2006, available at: http://www.jamestown.org/programs/ncw/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=2202&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=187&no_cache=1, last accessed 18 March 2009.

‘Baltic States Condemn Killing’, Chechnya Weekly, 6, 11, 16 March 2005.

‘Address of Mr. Sergey V. Lavrow, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Before the 14th Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council (Brussels, December 4, 2006)’, available at: http://www.osce.org/documents/mcs/2006/12/22408_en.pdf, last accessed 20 March 2009.

The speeches are available at: http://www.osce.org/conferences/mc_2006.html?page=documents&session_id=67, accessed 4 November 2007.

‘Prime Ministerial Conference: “Towards a Wider Europe: The New Agenda” Joint Statement Bratislava, Slovakia, March 19, 2004’, available at: http://www.osce.org/documents/sg/2004/03/2666_en.pdf, last accessed 15 March 2009.

Author's interviews, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France, 18–19 June 2009.

Summation by Andres Kasekamp, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, author's interview, Tallinn, Estonia, 6 July 2009.