22:20, 11 October 2010

"Memorial" receives Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize

On October 7 in Krakow, the Society "Memorial" was awarded with the Prize named after Sergio Vieira de Mello. The work of human rights defenders in Northern Caucasus was especially noted.

Tatiana Kasatkina, Executive Director of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", received the Diploma and the Prize in the course of the International Conference "Eastern Europe - Challenge of Modernization".

According to the Diploma, "the Prize has been awarded in recognition of outstanding achievements in advancing the ideas of peaceful coexistence and interaction between societies, religions and cultures."

"Thanks to the efforts of the 'Memorial', accessible exhibitions were opened, collections of documents and special libraries were created with the materials related to political persecutions in the totalitarian communist system," runs the press release issued on the occasion of the award.

It is also noted that an important mission of the "Memorial" is monitoring of human rights in the former Soviet Union and the conflict regions, where "the 'Memorial' is gathering, verifying, archiving and then publishing evidences of human rights violations."