EMBARGOED TO THE MEDIA UNTIL TUESDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2003, 1100 HRS NEW YORK TIME

Chechnya & Neighbouring Republics RF

CONSOLIDATED APPEAL

SUMMARY

Dire conditions

Four years after hostilities broke out again in Chechnya, people in the region still live in dire humanitarian conditions and struggle to survive amid violence and devastation.

Disappearances, torture, and terrorist bombings, summary executions and rapes are frequent occurrences.

Most people in Chechnya are unemployed, and a vast majority live below the poverty line. Some 63 per cent earn less than US $20 a month.

Despite government work to rehabilitate infrastructure in 2003, people still live without shelter and basic services, health, education, water, and sanitation.

Because of instability, some 70,000 IDPs are unlikely to return voluntarily to Chechnya in 2004 from neighbouring Ingushetia.

About 1,220,000 persons in the region need relief and recovery aid, in addition to government support, if they are to survive and live in dignity.

Agencies to help

To meet the needs of civilians, the aid community has two overall objectives:

• Provide relief and recovery assistance to alleviate suffering
• Build capacity of local civil society and government structures

Agencies have three strategic goals:

• Enhance the protection of, and respect for, legal and social human rights of the civilian population
• Help civil society groups and local NGOs gain confidence, skills, and capacities to contribute to the development of society
• Support governmental structures to function effectively, especially in legal, health, education, and social spheres

Agencies will provide aid in the following sectors: protection, food, shelter and non-food items, health, water and sanitation, education, mine action, and economic recovery.

Close cooperation will be needed to ensure people's rights to seek safe haven in other regions of the Russian Federation, in particular Ingushetia, and to return to Chechnya voluntarily, in safety and dignity.

Fifty-seven aid workers have been kidnapped and ten have lost their lives in Chechnya since 1995.

Request

US$61,923,703 will be needed by UN agencies and NGO partners.

Funding Requirements in 2004
(US$)