Human rights activists establish Chechen Civil Society Forum (2nd version)(adds comment by Swiss GfbV's head Bigler in paragraph 6)
Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus - Representatives of Chechen non-governmental and human rights organizations recently gathered in Nazran in preparations for the Chechen Civil Society Forum.
On June 9, around 30 NGO workers from Chechnya met with representatives from the Swiss and German sections of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) and discussed what needed to be done in preparation for the coming Forum.
Zainab Gashayeva, from the Chechen organization Ekho vojny and one of the meeting organizers, said that the final Forum conference would take place in September next year. “But the work of the Forum will begin this September, with implementation of its programs,” she said.
The Forum will include an opportunity for partnerships between Chechen NGO representatives and Swiss public figures and human rights activists, explained Sarah Reinke from GfbV, another meeting organizer.
“The creation of the Forum was necessary to give Chechens the opportunity to represent Chechnya's position in Europe. The possibility for Ichkerians to travel in Europe is often limited, so our task is to support those human rights activists who are already doing the work, by giving them the opportunity to travel to Europe,” said Reinke.
According to her, each activist will be protected by European politicians. However, Hanspeter Bigler, the head of the Swiss section of GfbV, denied that the Forum had won support from Swiss officials. The Forum is being established by cooperation between civil society organizations in Chechnya, Germany and Switzerland, while the authorities are not involved in it, he explained to Prague Watchdog.
“With so little information about Chechnya available at the moment, it is important that we break down the wall of propaganda,” Reinke stressed.
The work of the Forum will head in two directions: towards Europe and Chechnya, where various social projects will be implemented with the aim of developing a civil society in the republic, Reinke said.
The Society for Threatened Peoples (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker) is a non-profit organisation that was established to protect the rights of religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. Its German and Swiss sections have been actively involved in protecting human rights in Chechnya since 1999, when the second war began.
Prague Watchdog staff contributed to this report.
(U/T,E)
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