MOSCOW, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - Human Rights Watch called on Moscow Thursday to investigate a recent incident when Russian activists for indigenous peoples’ rights were banned by the country's officials from traveling to a United Nations conference.
Several Russian activists were scheduled to speak at the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in New York. The activists said that Russian border officials damaged their passports as they were about to board their plane at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
HRW said in a statement published on the organization's website that the incident was a sign of great intolerance toward civic activism.
"Preventing indigenous rights experts from speaking at a UN conference goes way beyond official intolerance toward civic activism. They [officials] will not succeed, but they should be immediately held accountable for their arbitrary interference with the activists' right to freedom of speech," Tanya Cooper, Russia researcher at HRW, said.
According to the activists the officials took away their passports and cut them up, taking out certain pages, saying that traveling with damaged documents was a violation of the state border regime. The activists now have to apply for new passports and face fines of 5,000 rubles ($130).
Other activists have had their passports stolen, as well as being stopped by traffic-police multiple times. HRW reported that at least one activist was eventually able to board a flight to New York.
The UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples took place on September 22 and 23, with the travel delays for the activists taking place on September 18 and 20.
