In Russia, the court decided to close the non-governmental organization Memorial Human Rights Center. The day before, the high court decided to cancel the legal status of Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights organization.
The Memorial Center for Human Rights maintains a list of people imprisoned on political grounds, including Kremlin dissident Alexei Navalny. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims accused of terrorism are also on the list. Memorial human rights organization argues that these people are victims of unproven accusations based on fabricated evidence because of their religious affiliation.
The United Nations human rights office, headquartered in Geneva, stated that Russian courts have decided to dissolve Russia’s two most respected human rights organizations, and that this step will further weaken the country’s declining human rights community.
Russian prosecutors argued that the work of the human rights center justified terrorism and extremism. Russian officials described both organizations as “foreign agents”.
Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint for the closure of the two organizations last month, citing that the organizations repeatedly violated the rules by not informing them that they were “foreign agents” in the content they produced.
Both organizations deny these accusations.
The Kremlin, which stated that it did not interfere with the court decisions, did not make a statement on the subject.
Memorial Human Rights Center was established in the last years of the Soviet Union and in the first years of its establishment it was investigating the crimes of the Soviet era. However, in the following years, the organization began to investigate the abuses of the period.
Amnesty: “A new blow to civil society”
Russian authorities have stepped up the crackdown on human rights organizations, media outlets and journalists in recent months.
Both organizations announced that they will appeal the court decisions.
Amnesty International described the court’s decision to close down the organization as a new blow to Russia’s civil society after years of persistent attacks.