Criticising political use of the judiciary in Russia and Kasakhstan

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is represented also at this years' OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. In our interventions at the meeting we will focus on the importance of independent judiciary drawing upon the examples of the Sergey Magnitsky case in Russia and the case against several oppositionals in Western Kazakhstan, and also drawing attention to governments' obligation to facilitate human rights eduaction, including by refraining from hindering participation by visa denial.

Today, the NHC is participating in a side event together with the Netherlands Helsinki Committee and other European and Central Asian colleagues, adressing the sober reality of the human rights situation in Central Asia with a presentation on freedom of religion.

The OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting is the largest annual human rights gathering in Europe, bringing together hundreds of government representatives, experts and human rights activists to review progress made by the 56 OSCE participating States in implementing their commitments in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. HDIM is therefore an important arena for the NHC to state our opinion on the development in the countries we are focusing on, meet partners and advocate governments.

Read the intervention on political use of judiciary in Russia and Western Kazakhstan here.

Read the intervention concerning governments’ obligation to facilitate human rights education here.