IPU urges greater effort in resolving cases of political assassinations

Galina Starovoitova, MP and human rights activist, was shot dead in St Petersburg on 20th November 1998.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is urging national authorities across the world to make a concerted effort to bring to justice those responsible for the assassination of scores of MPs in recent decades.

Marking the 16th anniversary today of the killing of Russian MP and human rights activist Galina Starovoitova, IPU is highlighting the large number of unresolved assassination cases, at times several decades after the crime was committed.

Those who instigated the killing of Starovoitova in St. Petersburg on 20 November 1998 are still to be identified and brought to trial. This follows an unbroken pattern of impunity around political assassinations in all regions of the world.

IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, which works to address human rights violations of MPs, is continuing to push for resolution on cases involving 60 politicians killed between 1986 and 2013.

This month alone marks the anniversary of unresolved murders of another three MPs, Sri Lankan Nadarajah Raviraj, who was killed on 10 November 2006; Lebanese Pierre Gemayel 11 days later and Yemeni Abdulkarem Jadban on 22 November 2013.

These and another five anniversaries in December concerning assassinated Colombian MP Octavio Vargas Cuéllar, Burundian MPs Innocent Ndkikumana and Gabriel Gisabwamana, Lebanese MP Gibran Tueni and Sri Lankan MP Joseph Pararajasingham, represent the tip of the iceberg. 

Assassinations account for 24 per cent of all 311 cases IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians is currently working on. Almost all killed are male MPs, with the majority representing the political opposition in their respective countries. However, women MPs in Afghanistan are increasingly coming under physical attack.

“Each instance of human rights violation is unacceptable at any time, any level and we note with great concern that defenders of human rights are themselves subjected to human rights violations. These are an affront to democracy itself because they seek to intimidate and stifle political diversity and dissent,” says  IPU President Saber Chowdhury.

“The lack of progress on bringing perpetrators to account is deplorable, both for families concerned, but also because impunity breeds confidence to commit further political crimes. We urge progress on bringing closure to these crimes,” he adds.

Africa and Asia remain the regions with the highest number of unresolved assassinations, accounting for more than two thirds of all such cases IPU is working on.

Created in 1976, the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians provides concrete and effective support to individual MPs who suffer human rights violations.

To access resolutions on the human rights of parliamentarians, please go to: http://www.ipu.org/hr-e/195/195all.htm