Russian parliamentarians criticized the draft resolution of Sweden on the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Russian Federation, adopted by the general committee at the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Berlin.
The resolution calls on Russia to fulfill international legal obligations in the field of human rights protection, protected within the UN, OSCE, PACE. The document, in particular, invites all OSCE participating States to include a “human rights” dimension in bilateral or multilateral relations with the Russian Federation, asks the Russian authorities “to unconditionally release all human rights defenders and other persons detained for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association “, Calls for the abolition of the law of 2013 on the protection of children” from information that promotes non-traditional values.
35 members of the OSCE PA General Committee voted for the resolution, 11 against and 11 abstained. The resolution will be finally adopted at the plenary session as an addition to the Berlin Declaration of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Several amendments were proposed to the resolution. Thus, the American delegation proposed to urge the Russian authorities to conduct a “new independent and thorough investigation” of the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. The amendment was adopted.
According to Nikolai Brykin, a member of the Russian delegation, State Duma deputy Nikolai Brykin, the presentation of the Swedish resolution is a response to Russia’s demand to conduct a full-scale monitoring of elections in this country.
“The introduction of this text is connected with Sweden’s desire to be noted in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as a response to Russia’s demand to conduct a full-scale monitoring of the OSCE / ODIHR election in this country,” Brykin said at a meeting of the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Human rights problems exist in many states, he added.
State Duma deputy Artem Turov said that the text of the resolution is based on cliches and stamps.
“Most of the items are superficial, they are cliches, as if they were not a deputy who for many years worked in the OSCE, and a student who took information from social networks from the yellow press prepared this draft resolution,” Turov said.
He also commented on the information contained in the text about violations of the rights of sexual minorities in the Russian Federation.
“Our country is multicultural, we have hundreds of years live together Christianity, Orthodoxy and Islam. We, as a Christian country in the first place, are based on Christian values, “Turov said, adding that Russia will protect these values.
The annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will last until July 11 in Berlin. The general theme of the session is “Implementation of OSCE commitments: the role of parliaments”.
Among the members of the Duma part of the Russian delegation – the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Pavel Zavalny, the first deputy chairman of the Duma committee on education Gennady Onishchenko. Senate members are represented, including the first deputy head of the Federation Council Committee on Budget and Financial Markets, Nikolai Zhuravlev, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs Alexander Babakov, member of the Council of Federation Council on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Lyudmila Narusova.