The list of issues regarding access to fair trial and torture of representatives of ethnic and religious minorities

For the UN Human Rights Committee session 129

Russian Federation

The list of issues regarding access to fair trial and torture
of representatives of ethnic and religious minorities

Based on field work and monitoring, ADC Memorial and Citizens’ Watch witness that ethnic and religious minorities in Russia are often become victims of unfair trials and torture within the counter-terrorism and anti-extremism judicial processes.

The minorities that are disproportionately targeted are Muslims – both migrants from Central Asia, but also living in Russia and Russian-controlled territories (as Crimean Tatars) and non-conventional Christian groups as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Below there is a brief description of the recent judicial processes that illustrates this tendency:

• the case of the terroristic attack in Saint-Petersburg in 2017;
• the trials of Crimean Tatars residing in Russian-controlled Crimea;
• and the typical problematic issues of counter-terrorist and anti-extremist processes.

The authors of this communication ask the Committee to include the issues described below into the List of Issues to be addressed to the Russian Government.