ERRC Expresses Concern on the Liquidation of ADC Memorial
30 April 2014
Budapest, 1 May 2014: The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is extremely concerned with the news that Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) 'Memorial', one of Russia’s most prominent human rights organisations, will be liquidated by authorities for refusing to register as a "foreign agent" with the Ministry of Justice. The ERRC has collaborated extensively with ADC Memorial in the past. We express our solidarity with the colleagues from the ADC Memorial.
According to Federal Law 121-F3 adopted on 20 July 2012, NGOs in Russia have to register themselves as “foreign agents” if they receive foreign funding and engage in political activities. Russian authorities have started a nationwide campaign of inspection in early March targeting thousands of nongovernmental organizations to identify those which fall under the scope of the “foreign agents” law and to force them to register as such.
On 12 July 2013, a prosecutor’s office in St. Petersburg initiated a case against the ADC Memorial claiming that, due to its activities, the ADC Memorial should be registered as a “foreign agent”. Among the work of the Memorial, its report entitled “Roma, Migrants, Activists: Victims of Police Abuse” was particularly referred by the prosecutor. The report, published on 9 November 2012, was submitted to the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) for its periodic review.
On 12 December 2013, Leninsky district court of Saint Petersburg has ruled that ADC Memorial should be registered as an “NGO performing the function of a foreign agent”. Appeal against the decision has been dismissed last week.
After this development, the Board of the ADC Memorial decided to liquidate the organization altogether rather than register as a foreign agent. Many Russian NGOs have refused to comply with the law, seeing it as an effort by the government to brand as traitors NGOs that might be critical of the government.
ADC Memorial has become the first major human rights organisation to be shut down based on the “foreign agents” law. ADC Memorial is one of the oldest human rights organisations in the country which challenges and combats discrimination through legal assistance, human rights education, research, and publications. Human rights struggle in Russia will be deeply affected by the closure of the ADC Memorial.
The ERRC believes that civil society organisations are a vital component of any democratic society. Russia’s efforts to intimidate and control such organisations are a violation of its commitments under international law.
For more information, contact:
Sinan Gökçen
Media and Communications Officer
European Roma Rights Centre
Tel. +36.30.500.1324
sinan.gokcen@errc.org
