January 16, there was an official statement,
announcing that the European Human Rights Court, in Strasbourg took into
consideration the first six complaints of Russian citizens, who live in
the Chechen Republic, concerning events of the armed conflict in the Northern
Caucasus. All these six complaints were prepared by the Human Rights Center
"Memorial" and had already been lodged by spring 2000.
Since the spring of 2000, Human Rights
Center "Memorial" (Moscow), along with the participation of the
Moscow Human Rights Watch Organization's representative, have provided
consultations to RF citizens, who are going to defend their rights through
the Strasbourg Court. First of all, it concerns people, whose rights were
violated during the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic.
January 21, there was a press-conference, concerning this, in the Press Development Institute. Human Rights Center "Memorial" representatives told journalists of these six complaints, and "Memorial's" cooperation with the appellants, the Human Rights European Court and Russian authorities, and about future work in this area.