Annual report

SRJI Annual Report 2009

Executive Summary

By the end of 2009 the Russian Justice Initiative had won 79 cases at the European Court of Human Rights—almost two-thirds of the Court’s entire case-law on the North Caucasus. RJI’s  tremendous success in its international litigation testifies to the unwaveringly high quality of RJI’s legal work and to the dedication of the Moscow and Ingushetia staff, many of whom were founding members of the project in 2001. The Court awarded the organization’s clients over EUR 3 million in moral compensation in 2009.

As the Court throughout 2009 continued to resoundingly condemn Russia for disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and to criticize ineffective domestic investigations, RJI devoted significant resources and strategic planning time to the implementation stage, preparing comprehensive submissions on individual and general measures for the Committee of Ministers, establishing important contacts at the Council of Europe, providing documentation to our clients on the post-judgment stage, and drawing more international attention to the Court’s growing case-law, all of which increases pressure on Russia to implement the judgments in good faith and allows us to better monitor the Government’s effort in that regard.

The increased attention to the Court’s growing case-law has generated interest in the organization’s work from the press and from academics, and RJI’s senior staff are frequently invited to give lectures and trainings on human rights litigation. We also continue to devote time to developing the capacity of local and independent lawyers to engage in international litigation. Despite the alarming deterioration of human rights and security in the North Caucasus throughout 2009, the organization continued to bring new cases through the domestic legal system to the ECtHR, and intensified its efforts to reach victims in Dagestan.

Following the creation of the South Caucasus Justice Project (SCJP) in September 2008 and a year-long grant from the Open Society Institute in January 2009 to continue litigation in partnership with the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, the SCJP had submitted over 20 applications to the ECtHR from the South Caucasus by the end of 2009. In 2010 the project on the South Caucasus will enter its second year with a focus on continuing conflict-related violations such as ethnic cleansing and serious cases of arbitrary detention.   

In 2010 we expect the Court to hand down more positive judgments in cases from the North Caucasus. We hope to make progress on the domestic level re-litigating cases post-ECtHR judgment, and to report on our progress and make recommendations to the Committee of Ministers. We are also hopeful that we may succeed in forging a constructive dialogue with the Russian authorities regarding implementation as we move forward in our efforts to bring about systemic changes in Russian law enforcement practices.

SRJI Annual Report 2009