Summary of Press Briefing with Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak on the postponement of his planned visit to the Russian Federation

VIENNA, 5 October 2006 - At the request of the Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) Vienna organized a press briefing today (Thursday 5 October) and at very short notice, with Mr. Nowak on the postponement of his planned visit to the Russian Federation.

UNIS Vienna Director, Nasra Hassan introduced Mr. Nowak and explained that in his role of Special Rapporteur Mr. Nowak was independent of any government and served in his individual capacity.

Mr. Nowak said that as a Special Rapporteur his most important function was to carry out fact-finding missions - only with the consent of governments - and he had done missions to various countries including Nepal and Jordan since his appointment as Special Rapporteur on Torture in December 2004. On these fact-finding missions it was essential that he had the right to make unannounced visits to detention centres and prisons. He explained that he would announce which regions or areas of a country he would visit and in the case of the Russian Federation that included the north Caucasus Republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. It was even more important he said that once in a detention centre or prison he had the right to free movement within the institution and the right to speak to any detainee in private. If detainees have been subjected to torture they were already afraid to talk, he said, and no one would tell him they had been tortured if the prison director was standing next to him. This was a non-negotiable condition of his missions.

The Russian Federation had originally responded positively to his request to visit said Mr. Nowak and when he had proposed September 2006 he received a formal acceptance from the Russian Federation with a request to keep the delegation as small as possible for security reasons. He had announced the forthcoming visit to the Russian Federation to the Human Rights Council in Geneva a few weeks ago, and it was also in his written report which would be presented to the General Assembly at the end of October.

However at a meeting on 21 September 2006 the Russian Ambassador in Geneva had raised some concerns regarding the visit, in particular that there might be problems with the legislation relating to talking to detainees in private. Mr. Nowak said he had looked at the Russian legislation and he thought there was a specific exception for international human rights monitors et al. and that the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had met detainees in private on her visit to the Russian Federation. The Russian authorities said they interpreted the legislation differently and it may be difficult to comply with the terms of reference for the visit. Mr. Nowak said that without a clear assurance that he would be able to speak to detainees in private he would not be able to carry out his mission and they have now agreed to the postponement of the visit but it has not been cancelled.

Mr. Nowak said that he sincerely hoped that the visit will take place in future and he regretted that he cannot go now because a lot of preparation work has been done for the mission both by the Russian authorities and his own team.