Special Features
ICTJ | In Focus: Ending Violence Against Women
Today, November 25th, ICTJ joins the global observations of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the start of the “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.” On this day, we recognize the ongoing efforts to protect women from violence in different parts of the world.
It is also a time to reflect on the many ways this deeply complex and often culturally entrenched problem is being addressed in countries reckoning with past human rights abuses. For women who have been victims of sexual or other forms of violence during armed conflict or repressive rule, peace treaties or regime change doesn’t necessarily bring an end to their suffering, or guarantee justice for crimes committed against them.
In ICTJ’s work where widespread violence has disproportionately affected women, we’ve seen how challenging it is for victims of gender-based violence to seek justice or redress: the myriad of obstacles facing women in the justice system often deter them from telling authorities about crimes in the first place, preventing any future efforts to see justice done.
Public institutions—including police forces and the judicial system—have a key role to play to ensure women are protected from abuse and that gender-based violence does not go unreported or unpunished. Even simple reforms of police at the basic level, such as ensuring victims can speak to a female officer at a police station, or covering the cost of basic medical exams, can make a huge difference to make victims feel secure. Police officers who are implicated in incidents of sexual violence should be thoroughly vetted, and those taking statements from victims—including police officers, lawyers or other legal authorities—should receive detailed training on how to conduct the interview without risking re-traumatization.
While changing the ways of bureaucratic systems can be cumbersome, without such change other progress to protect women’s rights is at risk. Citizens’ trust in public institutions forms the foundation for society’s transition to peace and the rule of law.
Spotlight: Reforming the National Police in Kenya
Kenya is still dealing with the repercussions of post-election violence that erupted across the counrty in 2007 and included many cases of rapes and sexual assaults. Kenyan police officers were widely implicated in incidents of sexual violence, either by sexually assaulting women or failing to fulfill their duty to investigate such cases during the crisis and up until now. However, not a single case has been prosecuted.
The disturbing impact of police attitudes towards sexual and gender-based violence was reflected in a recent ICTJ report, The Accountability Gap on Sexual Violence in Kenya: Reforms and Initiatives Since the Post-Election Crisis. Of the 48 women interviewed, only nine had reported their sexual assault to the police.
Endemic corruption and a culture of tolerance towards violence against women combine to protect these officers from accountability. And many victims are afraid to come forward, as they fear social stigmatization and additional abuse from police.
Those who did not report to the police attributed their inaction to the hostility they expected from police officers. For example, one woman reported:
“The police in Molo were harsh and cruel. It was also shameful, being an old woman . . . I was embarrassed to tell my husband, and my daughters were also raped. They left for Nairobi and have never returned.”
ICTJ’s Gender Justice Program is assisting the National Police Services Commission of Kenya and the country’s civil society to reform police practices. The police vetting process offers the best chance to remove perpetrators from the forces, as well as those at higher levels who tolerate sexual violence.
In June and October, ICTJ held training workshops to enhance public awareness of Kenya’s police vetting program and how to engage with it, as well as to provide concrete recommendations to improve its capacity to reveal police misconduct related to sexual violence.
Read more about ICTJ’s work in Kenya in the latest ICTJ Program report here
Photo: A woman looks into a polling station before voting in a general election in Ilbissil, Kenya, March 4, 2013 (AP Photo/Riccardo Gangale)
Civil Unrest in Western and Central Africa
Magnitsky’s Mother Goes to the Russian Supreme Court to Overturn the Second Posthumous Case Initiated Against Her Murdered Son
21 November 2014 – Sergei Magnitsky’s mother has filed a complaint with the judicial collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia in relation to the second posthumous proceeding organized against her son by the Russian Interior Ministry.
Under this second posthumous case, Sergei Magnitsky has been named after his death as a “co-conspirator” in the $230 million tax refund fraud that he had in fact uncovered and exposed.
“…Investigator Urzhumtsev in violation of the principle of presumption of innocence, in violation of the constitutional right for defence, in the absence of a court order, in the absence of preliminary investigation, had stated in his decree [from December 2010] that Sergei Magnitsky who died a year before [in November 2009] in Matrosskaya Tishina detention center, committed a serious crime… the theft of 5.4 billion rubles [$230 million]… The conclusion itself must be qualified as slander in relation to knowingly innocent person,” says the complaint.
“He [Investigator Urzhumtsev] knew very well, that Magnitsky not only was not complicit in the theft of 5.4 billion rubles, but that Magnitsky was the first person who had uncovered the crime committed against the three companies of his client, and who had exposed the criminal activity of perhaps one of the largest criminal groups which specializes in unlawful tax refunds,” says the complaint.
Interior Ministry Investigator Oleg Urzhumtsev was included on both the investigative team on the case against Sergei Magnitsky under which Magnitsky was arrested and ill-treated in custody; and on the case to investigate the $230 million theft that Magnitsky had uncovered. The second investigation led by Investigator Urzhumtsev finished by exonerating all Russian Interior Ministry and tax officials from liability for the $230 million theft, and naming Sergei Magnitsky as co-conspirator posthumously and in secret from his relatives. Urzhumtsev also was responsible for assigning the blame for the crime to a “jobless” person named Vyacheslav Khlebnikov in a fast-track proceeding which ended with a lenient sentence of five years for the $230 million theft. As part of that proceeding conducted after Magnitsky’s death, Khlebnikov gave a false testimony against Magnitsky from detention.
“As member of the investigative group [on the case Sergei Magnitsky was detained], Urzhumtsev knew that Magnitsky was arrested soon after his testimony implicating officials in the theft of 5.4 billion rubles, and that some of those officials were included on the same investigative team,- points out the complaint. – Magnitsky stated that his criminal prosecution was a measure of repression aimed to punish him for the assistance he provided to his client during the identification of circumstances of the theft of his client’s companies – Rilend, Makhaon, and Parfenion.”
The complaint says that Investigator Urzhumtsev has concealed the real perpetrators by blaming the $230 million theft on Sergei Magnitsky, and two other deceased individuals (Mr Gasanov and Mr Korobeinikov), neither of whom were alive and could be questioned at the time of the investigation.
“The evidence in the case file objectively demonstrates that Investigator Urzhumtsev acted in the interests of persons who perpetrated the theft of 5.4 billion rubles [$230 million], and who using his own terminology, “found” two deceased individuals in order to put on them the liability for the theft of budget funds, and in order to provide the service of concealment for the real perpetrators of the crime,” says the complaint.
It was since uncovered that Mr Gasanov died on 1 October 2007, two months before the $230 million was committed. Mr Korobeinikov died in September 2008, “falling of a balcony” of a building under construction, according to the Russian investigation.
Ms Magnitskaya asks the Russian Supreme Court to examine the lawfulness of investigator Urzhumtsev’s actions and annul previous decisions by lower-level Russian courts who rejected her complaints.
“The court must check the lawfulness and the justification for the Investigator’s decree… The previous rejection violates the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence because deceased Magnitsky was named by Investigator Urzhumtsev as a co-conspirator in a crime,” says the complaint.
“The court had an opportunity to check the arguments using the criminal case files, and by inviting investigator Urzhumtsev to give testimony, but it failed to do so…As a result, the conclusion of the court [of lower instance] is not supported by the factual circumstances, which is … the ground to cancel the court decision,” says the complaint in conclusion.
Previous complaints from Ms Magnitskaya addressed to lower instance courts have been rejected by Moscow district judge Tatiana Neverova, and Moscow city court judges Andrei Titov and Lyubov Ishmuratova
In the United States, 26 Russian officials and private individuals involved in Sergei Magnitsky’s detention and ill-treatment in custody and in the criminal conspiracy Magnitsy had uncovered have been sanctioned under the US Magnitsky Act. The list includes several colleagues of Investigator Urzhumtsev on the Russian Interior Ministry’s investigative team in the Magnitsky case.
For more information, please contact:
Magnitsky Justice Campaign
New Russian State Television’s Attack on Bill Browder Features Ex-con and Expert Suspected of Involvement in Rwandan Genocide
14 November 2014 – To mark the fifth anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s murder in police custody, Russian state-controlled television, NTV will be airing a show on prime time television which will conclude that Sergei Magnitsky was not murdered, and will blame justice campaigner Bill Browder as the man responsible for all of Russia’s problems (http://www.ntv.ru/peredacha/
The new Russian show accuses Mr Browder of being a CIA agent responsible for the devaluation of the Russian ruble in 1998, for the theft of $4.7 billion of Russian IMF funding; and for the murders of Edmond Safra and Boris Berezovsky.
The show relies on several experts, including Oleg Lurie, who was previously convicted for extortion in Russia and served a four year prison sentence (http://www.interfax.ru/
The show also stars Paul Barril, a former French intelligence officer, suspected by human rights activists of complicity in the Rwandan genocide (http://www.parismatch.com/
“While the rest of the world is marking the anniversary of Sergei Magnitsky’s killing in custody, noting with shock the impunity of Russian officials, the Russian government continues to cover up the crime and blame the victims,” said a Magnitsky Justice Campaign representative.
The Magnitsky case has lead to a dramatic movement in Russian civil society, calling on the West to do something to create consequences for involved Russian officials, and specifically to impose sanctions in the form of visa bans and freezes on their assets in Western banks.
As a result, in December 2012, the U.S. passed the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act” imposing such sanctions. In Europe, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), international organizations comprising up to 57 countries, passed resolutions calling on their members and their national parliaments to adopt a course similar to that of the US and impose Magnitsky sanctions. The Russian government and President Putin have made resisting the Magnitsky sanctions one of top foreign policy priorities.
Sergei Magnitsky was a 37-year old lawyer and outside counsel for the Hermitage Fund, who was tortured to death in Russian Interior Ministry custody after he testified about the involvement of Interior Ministry officials in the theft of his client’s companies and the $230 million theft. The Russian officials responsible for his arrest, torture and killing were absolved from any responsibility, promoted and decorated with state honours.
For more information, please contact:
Magnitsky Justice Campaign