In the nearly one and a half years that have passed since the last report, the campaign of fabrication of “Islamic extremism” criminal cases passed through an interim period of very relative easing, before once again being stepped up in April 2008.

At the moment the struggle for political stability and state integrity in the Russian Federation is turning into the fight against dissidence, any signs of public political activity and the civil society as it is.

Our analysis of the cases detailed below reveals that litigation is currently the most effective remedy against arbitrariness faced by human rights defenders at the hands of authorities. Government officials employ all methods and means, including unlawful criminal or administrative proceedings, to discredit human rights defenders in the public opinion, and to limit or deny them the possibility of engaging in their professional work.

The recommendations are organized in accordance with the structure of the Alternative Report and the identified problem areas with regard to practices of torture and cruel, inhuman treatment.

This Joint Report on the Observance of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by the Russian Federation for the period from 2001 to 2005 was prepared jointly by the leading Russian NGOs, including: DEMOS Research Center, Public Verdict Foundation, Civic Assistance Committee, Memorial Human Rights Center, All-Russian Movement “For Human Rights”, “Social Partnership Foundation”, Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committees of Russia, Nizhniy Novgorod Committee against Torture, Krasnoyarsk Public Committee for Human Rights Protection, Perm regional human rights defender center, Kazan Human Rights Center, Yorshkar-Ola organization “Man and Law”, Memorial Human Rights Commission of Komi Republic, the Public Interest Law Initiative, Mordovian Republican Human Rights Center, Public Problems Research Institute «United Europe», Tver Memorial Society, Krasnodar Organization “Mothers in Defense of the Rights of Those Arrested, Under Investigation and Convicted”, Association of human rights organizations of Sverdlovsk region, Chita Human Rights Center. The Public Verdict Foundation was responsible for general coordination; Demos Research Center was responsible for legal editing of the report.