RUSSIAN FEDERATION
| CASE N° RUS/01 - GALINA STAROVOITOVA |
Resolution adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 189th session
(Bern, 19 October 2011)
The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,
Referring to the case of Ms. Galina Starovoitova, a member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, who was assassinated on 20 November 1998, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/189/11(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 188th session (April 2011),
Recalling the following information on file, as provided over the years, most recently on 9 October 2009, chiefly by the State Duma, regarding the investigation and judicial proceedings:
- In June 2005, two persons were found guilty of Ms. Starovoitova’s murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison by the St. Petersburg City Court, which, in its judgment, concluded that the murder had been politically motivated; in September 2007, two others were found guilty of complicity in the murder and sentenced to 11 and 2 years in prison respectively; four other suspects were acquitted and released;
- National and international arrest warrants are pending for three individuals;
- According to the Prosecutor General's report of 2 October 2009, "the investigation of the case was suspended on 4 September 2009” and "there are at present no grounds for changing the decision taken and reopening the investigation"; yet the same report continues by stating that, in accordance with legislation on criminal proceedings and the Federal Law on "operational investigative activity", the preliminary investigation body determined a set of measures intended to identify the instigators of the crime and locate the accused who were evading justice, and that the investigation of the case and the operational investigative steps were monitored by the Public Prosecution Department in St. Petersburg and by the Prosecutor General's Office,
Recalling that Ms. Starovoitova was a prominent Russian human rights advocate and had denounced instances of high-profile corruption shortly before her assassination; recalling also that in November 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed "its concern at the alarming incidence of threats, violent assaults and murders of journalists and human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, which has created a climate of fear and a chilling effect on the media ... ", and urged it "to take immediate action to provide effective protection and ensure the prompt, effective, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation of threats, violent assaults and murders and, where appropriate, prosecute and initiate proceedings against the perpetrators of such acts"; recalling further that many States made similar recommendations during the Universal Periodic Review of the Russian Federation’s compliance with its human rights obligations before the United Nations Human Rights Council (February 2009),
Considering that elections for the State Duma will take place in early December 2011,
- Deeply regrets that, almost 13 years after Ms. Starovoitova was murdered for political reasons, there are still no indications that progress is being made to identify and hold to account the masterminds; regrets in this regard the absence of any information from the State Duma in the last two years regarding possible developments in the investigation;
- Reaffirms that, as borne out by the many attacks and murders of journalists and human rights defenders that have occurred since Ms. Starovoitova’s murder, the failure of the authorities fully to elucidate such crimes, in particular to identify the masterminds, serves as a continuing deterrent for others wishing to speak out on critical issues and can only embolden those bent on silencing such voices, and thus undermine freedom of expression; strongly believes that this should be of particular concern to the members of the State Duma, who cannot exercise their mandates without being able to speak out fearlessly;
- Calls again on the authorities to do their utmost, as is their duty, to lend fresh impetus to the investigation with a view to finally elucidating this crime and identifying the instigators;
- Calls on the Parliament of the Russian Federation, which has a vested interest in the case since the victim was one of its members and was killed on account of having exercised her freedom of speech, a parliamentarian’s basic tool, to continue ensuring strict oversight as warranted by the apparent lack of results;
- Requests the Secretary General to bring this resolution to the attention of the new parliamentary authorities, inviting them to provide informationon the monitoring steps that have been and might be taken with respect to the investigation, in addition to information on the status of the efforts made to identify the masterminds; also requests the Secretary General to convey the resolution to the source;
- Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held during the 126th IPU Assembly (March/April 2012).
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