In 2019, International Community Should Seize Opportunity to Speak Out on Behalf of Alexey Pichugin, Other Political Prisoners in Russia

January 16, 2019

With the holidays over and the new year rung in, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the self-proclaimed “democratic conscience of Greater Europe” is gearing up to get back to furthering its mission of upholding “the shared values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law that are the ‘common heritage’ of the peoples of Europe.”

In the past, PACE has been one of the loudest voices of support for Alexey Pichugin and other political prisoners in Russia suffering at the hands of the Russian regime, and has strongly criticized Russia’s refusal to abide by the two European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Mr. Pichugin’s case.

For example, during free debate before the full assembly in the spring of 2017, French Representative Pierre Yves Le Borgn, appointed Rapporteur concerning the enforcement of ECHR judgments, called out Mr. Pichugin’s case, describing Russia’s treatment of him as “tantamount to moral torture,” stating: “There can be no place for such inhumanity in our community of law.”

And, in the summer of 2017, former German Minister of Justice and former Chair of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, wrote: “The refusal to abide by European Court judgments is a canary in the coal mine for human rights – and for the sanctity of the signature of increasingly authoritarian nations like Russia, on human rights treaties. The risks are only greater in a world where isolationism seems all too ready to take root. The world’s citizens, and democratic nations, ignore these warning signs at their peril.”

Currently, Mr. Pichugin’s case does not appear to be a separate agenda item for the Parliamentary Assembly during its upcoming Winter Session in Strasbourg, 21-25 January 2019.  Some listed focal areas are disinformation, propaganda and media freedom as a condition for democratic elections, Internet governance and human rights, the compatibility of Sharia law with the European Convention on Human Rights and the promotion of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities.

However, with debates expected to focus on “Sergei Magnitsky and beyond – fighting impunity by targeted sanctions, ensuring better follow-up of recommendations by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and progress of PACE’s monitoring procedure in 2018,” there is an opening for representatives to shine a light on Alexey Pichugin’s fate and the fate of his fellow inmates.

After all, with Russia’s political prisoners deprived of opportunities to speak up for themselves, the media and the international community must become their voice.

In the words of Irvin Cotler, founder and chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada:

“We must not forget those arrested by tyrannies around the world who remain imprisoned based on their fidelity to conscience.

We may not know all of their names, but we must speak for these heroes in the war for freedom and the rule of law — to let them know we stand in solidarity with them, and that we will not relent until their freedom is secured.”

Here’s hoping the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe steps up to the plate.

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