PRESS RELEASE

3 June 2012 – On Thursday, 7 June 2012, the US House of Representative’s Foreign Affairs Committee will mark up and vote on the Magnitsky bill (H.R. 4405) that imposes visa bans and asset freezes on foreign human rights offenders and corrupt officials. Following that, the Magnitsky bill will move to the full vote in the House of Representatives. This is taking place amid the escalating Russian government rhetoric against the bill and the equally rising call from Russian civil society leaders for enacting the bill .

“This is a major development as it clears the last major bottleneck to get the Magnitsky bill passed in the House,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The House consideration of the Magnitsky bill is significant for three reasons.

First, the consideration in the Foreign Affairs Committee is taking place a week after the Russian President’s foreign policy adviser tried to pressure the US over the Magnitsky bill. On 29 May 2012, Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, publicly threatened counter-measures if the bill gets passed:

“We got used to the Jackson-Vanik amendment, we know well how to manage it, and it has not particularly bothered us. But if this new anti-Russian law is adopted, then of course that will require some measures from our side in response.” 

The Russian government’s position on the bill is at odds with Russian public opinion. According to a Levada Center poll held last August, 60 percent of Russians support visa bans and asset freezes by the US and the EU on the Russian officials implicated in the Magnitsky case.

Second, the U.S. House of Representatives is moving on the Magnitsky bill at a much faster pace than the Senate, who origally led on the bill. In the U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry indicated that the bill would be considered in April, but in spite of a number of public promises it has not been on the agenda of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee leading some commentators to believe that Senator Kerry is being pressured by the US State Department to block the progress of the bill.

Third, the House may consider the Magnitsky bill before any consideration of repealing the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which many had believed would be linked. The repeal of Jackson-Vanik amendment isconsidered necessary by the US administration for granting Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations before Russia joins the World Trade Organization, which is expected this summer.

The Magnitsky bill is supported by Russian opposition leaders as the single most effective way to deal with widespread Russian corruption and rights abuse. A recently released movie, Sergei’s Law, features fourteen Russian civil society activists urging to enact the Magnitsky bill in the U.S. Congress. The video was produced by College-100, a network of U.S. student body presidents representing over 3 million young people.

“The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012” was introduced by U.S. House Representative James McGovern in April 2012. The bill has gained 25 co-sponsors in one month, including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, where the bill will be up for mark up this week.

 

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital

Phone:              +44 207 440 17 77
E-mail:             info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website:           http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter:             @KatieFisher__
Livejournal:     http://hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

By Connie Hong
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France — On June 1, 2012, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told radio station RMC and television station BFMTV that laws legalizing marriage and adoption for same-sex couples will soon be introduced to France.  Ayrault did not specify when the bills would be presented to the French Senate. Whether a draft bill has been drawn up at this time is still unclear.  The president of the Socialists’ Homosexualités et Socialisme, Gilles Bon-Maury, however, predicts that such a bill could be presented to Parliament before the fall of this year.

Ayrault, a member of the Socialist Party, was appointed as prime minister on May 15. Although the French National Assembly rejected a bill seeking to legalize same-sex marriage last year, the Socialist Party still plans on implementing measures that would introduce marriage equality to the country.  In fact, France’s new Socialist President, Francois Hollande, made a similar pledge vowing to introduce gay marriage to the country by 2013.  Hollande’s predecessor, Nicholas Sarkozy, was opposed to gay marriage.

Same-sex marriage is currently banned by law in France.  Gay couples may enter into Civil Solidarity Pacts (PACS) but they do not provide the same legal protections and benefits that marriages offer.  PACS, for example, do not give couples the right to joint adoption or artificial insemination.

The ban is highly controversial within the country, receiving much criticism from gay rights supporters.  A French couple had challenged the ban on constitutional grounds, arguing that it limited their personal freedoms.  In response to the claim, the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest court of appeals, ordered the Constitutional Council to rule on the constitutionality of the law.  Last year, the council found the country’s same-sex marriage ban constitutional.  The council made clear that its power was limited to interpreting existing laws under the constitution, but that the legislature has the authority to make new laws allowing gay marriage.

France will be joining a growing number of European countries legalizing gay marriage if it goes through with its plans to introduce same-sex marriage.  France’s neighbors Spain and Belgium, as well as Holland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, and Portugal have already introduced marriage equality.  Other countries such as Denmark, Germany, Luxemburg, Finland and the United Kingdom have hinted that they also plan to approach the issue in the near future.

For further information, please see:

ATV Today — French Prime Minister Promises Equal Marriage Laws — 2 June 2012

Jurist — France PM: same-sex marriage, adoption laws to be introduced — 1 June 2012

Pink News — French prime minister: Equal marriage and adoption laws to be introduced ‘quickly’ — 1 June 2012

World Crunch — After Sarkozy’s Defeat, Will France Be Next To Legalize Gay Marriage? — 14 May 2012

By Alexandra Halsey-Storch
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

On Thursday presiding Judge Alphons Orie suspended war criminal Ratko Mladic’s trial “indefinitely” after prosecutors failed to disclose thousands of documents to the former Bosnian Serb military chief’s defense team.

The ruling could delay the trial for months.

According to NPR, Judge Orie said the three-judge panel will analyze the “scope and full impact” of the error and aim to establish a new starting date “as soon as possible.” The particular evidence at issue, namely witnesses that the prosecution intended to call to testify, was to be presented later this month.

The long-awaited genocide trial began at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslav on Wednesday, May 16^th. It’s commencement marked an international victory for human rights, demonstrating that perpetrators will be held accountable for their wrongful acts and will be brought to justice.

Last May, Mladic was charged with 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

His indictment states, in part, that, “On 8 March 1995, Radovan KARADZIC, as the Supreme Commander of the VRS, issued Operational Directive 07, which directed the VRS to eliminate the Muslim enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa, in furtherance of the “strategic objectives” of 12 May 1992. On 2 July 1995, Bosnian Serb Forces under the command and control of General Ratko MLADIC attacked the Srebrenica enclave. This attack on the enclave continued until 11 July 1995, when General Ratko MLADIC and the Bosnian Serb Forces entered Srebrenica. Subsequently, those Bosnian Serb Forces terrorized Bosnian Muslims, who were forcibly transferred to areas outside the enclave and many of whom fled in a huge column through the woods towards Tuzla. The majority of this group consisted of unarmed military personnel and civilians.”

The indictment further states that, between 12 July and about 20 July 1995, thousands of Bosnian Muslim men were captured by, or surrendered to, Bosnian Serb Forces under the command and control of General Ratko MLADIC. Over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners captured in the area around Srebrenica were summarily executed from 13 July to 19 July 1995. Killings continued thereafter. From about 1 August 1995 through about 1 November 1995, VRS units under the command and control of General Ratko MLADIC participated in an organized and comprehensive effort to conceal the killings and executions of the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica by reburying, in isolated locations, bodies exhumed from mass graves.

As stated by The Huffington Post, Prosecutor Dermot Groome told the three-judge panel on Wednesday that Mladic was chosen to lead the Bosnian Serb forces by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic not only because of his skills as a military commander but also “because Karadzic believed he was willing to commit the crimes needed to achieve the strategic goals of the Bosnian Serb leadership.”

Also during Wednesday’s opening statements, Prosecutor Groome indicated that Mladic’s wartime diaries, radio intercepts and appearances he made on television during the war, would be used against him as evidence of his crimes.

Prosecutors finished their opening statements on Thursday morning where they iterated, “in painstaking and chilling detail the systematic murder of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Bosnia in 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Mladic.

“In a period of only five days, from July 12-16, 1995, the armed forces of [Bosnian Serb leader] Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic expelled the civilian population of Srebrenica and murdered over 7,000 Srebrenica men and boys,” prosecutor Peter McCloskey said.

Mladic continues to maintain any wrong-doing, instead iterating, “I have only defended my people.”

Should he be found guilty, Mladic faces life in prison.

For more information, please visit:

NPR—Judge Suspends War Crimes Trial of Ratko Mladic—17 May 2012

BBC New–Ratko Mladic’s War Crimes Trial Postponed Over Evidence–17 May 2012

The Huffington Post—Ratko Mladic Ware Crimes Trial Starts—16 May 2012

AJC—War Crimes Charges Against Mladic—16 May 2012

NPR—Grim Reading: The Mladic Indictment: The Two-Way—26 May 2011

TIME—Ratko Mladic’s Indictment Contains Horrifying Details of Massacre—26 May 2011