On 29 September 2011, ECCHR addressed in an open letter Hilary Swank, Vanessa Mae, Shakira, Kevin Costner as well as Eva Mendes that were, according to media reports, invited to participate in an event on the occasion of the city’s day and the birthday of the Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny on October 5.

ECCHR urged the five stars not to appear in this event as it would “disregard the seriousness of the situation with regards to his authoritarian ruling and the violation of fundamental human rights in the Chechen Republic”. Current open investigations against Kadyrov in Austria on the murder of a key-witness in a torture lawsuit against him were mentioned as well as witness testimonies about acts of torture personally perpetrated by him. Three of the celebrities did reportedly not participate in the show and party, however Hilary Swank as well as Vanessa Mae and a few others not approached with the open letter did.

ECCHR’s open letter has been translated into Russian and been distributed at the day of the event by the Moscow based human rights organization Memorial. According to media articles, Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov complaint about the letter, called it the reason for stars as Shakira to decline his invitation and named human rights groups ‘enemy of the people’.

The stars which participated in the event faced harsh criticism afterwards, e.g. as expressed by Human Rights Watch, and were called to give the paid money back. Reportedly, sums up to 1 Million USD have been offered to some of the stars.