The non-governmental organisation Mothers of Chechnya (henceforth referred to as MoC) was founded in 1995 as a response to the enormous amount of enforced disappearances during the first Chechen conflict. The main goal for MoC is peace and stability in Chechnya and Northern Caucasus and they are trying to achieve that through tolerance, dialogue and co-operation.
One of two main priorities for the organisation is the work on disappearances. People searching for missing relatives or friends are offered assistance free of charge. MoC helps the applicants throughout the whole chain of actions, from filling out a form with data on the missing person to taking a case to trial. Throughout this process the applicants get psychological support from MoC.
The second priority for MoC is to give voice to the Chechen civilian population on an international level. The head of the organisation is travelling constantly, mostly within the European Union, to put the spotlights on Chechnya and to bring cases of disappearances to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The organisation has one office in the Chechen capital Grozny, one in Gudermes (also Chechnya), one in Ingushetia and one in Khasaviurt in the Republic of Dagestan. Members of MoC also travel regularly to Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia and the southern regions of Russia in order to conduct searches. Today it has about 50 activists and about 1 000 members.
Human Rights’ Situtation
The first Chechen war started in 1994 and lasted for two years. In 1999 a second war broke out that officially ended in 2003, but human rights organisations in the region have since regularly reported that battles and disappearances have continued, although on a smaller scale than before. On April 16, 2009 the Russian government declared that its antiterrorist operations in Chechnya were over and started to withdraw the Russian troops. But only during the summer of 2009, 52 police officers and soldiers were killed and 102 were injured in Chechnya, which shows that the situation is far from stable and that the insurgents are still active.
On the surface, the situation in Chechnya has changed for the better in recent years. The Russian Federation has allocated large state funds to restore infrastructure and to create new job opportunities in the Chechen Republic, but the unemployment rates are still very high. Due to this, new buildings have appeared in the capital of Grozny and there are a lot of restored squares and market places and coffee shops in the city centre.
But many people still live in very bad conditions and it's often only the surface of the flats that has been restored. Many people are still out of hot and cold water and have to carry water over long distances. People are still afraid of being abducted like the thousands of civilians that are still missing, or to be found in one of the many mass graves (about 3,000 bodies in dozens of mass graves still have to be identified). Most people are afraid to express their opinion on politics and the situation in Chechnya today.
Campaign for hiring a lawyer
You can support the Mothers of Chechnya and their advocacy for human rights directly here.
