Rights defenders demand to stop pressure on "Golos"

Members of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of Russia issued a statement in support of several non-profit organizations (NPOs), in particular, of the Association "Golos" (Vote). According to their opinion, the accusations of the NPO of political activities cross out citizens' constitutional rights.

The HRC members assert that the pressure on the "Golos", recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as a "foreign agent", "is an inseparable part of the ongoing wave of persecution of hundreds of NPOs subjected to humiliating and unmotivated inspections."

The author of the statement note that apart of the "Golos" two more NPOs were labelled as "foreign agents": the Kostroma Centre in Support of Public Initiatives and the Kostroma "Committee of Soldiers' Mothers". All the above three NPOs are under a threat of trials and huge fines.

On March 2, the prosecutor's office requested financial and constituent documents from the Association "Golos: In Defence of Voters' Rights". After reviewing the results of the check, the Ministry of Justice ruled that the NPO was involved in political activities in the territory of Russia. Coupled with the fact that the awarding of the NPO with the International Sakharov Prize was estimated by the Ministry as foreign funding, the "Golos" was recognized as a "foreign agent".

"It's clear that the authorities are trying to derail any non-partisan efforts of public control over the elections and take a cruel revenge for the broad observation campaign, which, thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of tens of thousands of civil society activists, allowed to create in the autumn of 2011, a real system of public control and reveal large-scale election falsifications," says the statement of human rights defenders.

"We demand that the authorities follow the recommendations of the resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council of March 21, 2013, 'Defence of Human Rights Defenders' and stop discriminating Russian nongovernmental organizations and pressing them," says the statement signed by Lyudmila Alekseeva, the chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG); Valery Borschov, a member of the MHG; Yuri Vdovin, a deputy chair of the "Citizens' Control"; Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the Charity Committee "Civil Assistance"; Sergey Kovalyov, the chair of the board of the Public Commission for Andrei Sakharov's Heritage; Oleg Orlov, the chair of the board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"; and Lev Ponomaryov, the executive director of the Movement "For Human Rights".