At it's 4th part of the 2009 Ordinary Session the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe hold a debate on the situation of human rights defenders and the increasing violence in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation on September 30th. Member of the german Delegation Marieluise Beck was one of the speaker during the debate. Please reade an abstract of what she said here:

Mrs BECK (Germany) had visited Chechnya and Beslan two years previously: it was crystal clear that there was terrorism in the region. Human rights activists were under threat in the North Caucasus and also in other parts of the Russian Federation. The authorities in the Russian Federation did not seem to have any interest in elucidating the deaths of these activists.

Mr Slutsky needed to note that a human rights group had found it necessary to withdraw its staff from the region on safety grounds. Human rights activists were afraid to move into the region, and Mrs Estemirova had been personally threatened by Mr Kadyrov, the Russian-appointed President of Chechnya, who had a responsibility for supporting human rights.

It was necessary to impress upon Russia the commitment that all member states of the Council of Europe had made to defend human rights. Russia now needed to show that it would no longer seek to cover up human rights abuses, but uphold human rights instead. Specifically, Russia should ratify Protocol No. 14. It was important that Russia took these steps and remained a member of the Council of Europe.