Russian upper house ratifies rights convention

Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, has voted overhelmingly to ratify the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Convention allows citizens the right to appeal to an international court in Strasbourg on human rights issues.

Russia signed the Convention two years ago, when it joined the forty-member Council of Europe, but the ratification process only started when the communist-led lower house of parliament, the Duma, approved the Convention last month.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service