{"id":9124,"date":"2014-04-08T11:45:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T07:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/?p=9124"},"modified":"2014-04-09T11:34:08","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T07:34:08","slug":"russian-federation-appeal-hearing-in-adc-memorial-foreign-agent-case-the-observatory-calls-for-the-recognition-that-human-rights-ngos-are-not-foreign-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/russian-federation-appeal-hearing-in-adc-memorial-foreign-agent-case-the-observatory-calls-for-the-recognition-that-human-rights-ngos-are-not-foreign-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Federation: Appeal hearing in ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d \u201cforeign agent\u201d case: the Observatory calls for the recognition that human rights NGOs are not \u201cforeign agents\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris-Geneva, April 7, 2014. On International Roma Day, the Saint Petersburg City Court will consider tomorrow the appeal lodged by the Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) \u201cMemorial\u201d, a Russian NGO at the forefront of the defence of Roma’s rights, against a ruling ordering it to register as a \u201cforeign agent\u201d for its human rights work. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT joint programme) will attend the hearing within the framework of an international solidarity mission.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a first instance ruling on December 12, 2013, the Leninsky District Court of Saint Petersburg officially ruled that ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d was performing the functions of a \u201cforeign agent\u201d, following unfair proceedings on the basis of a repressive NGO law. The law on \u201cforeign agents\u201d, which entered into force on November 21, 2012 in Russia, imposes all NGOs receiving funds from foreign sources for any kind of \u201cpolitical activities\u201d (defined as anything likely to \u201cinfluence public opinion in order to change the policy\u201d) to register as \u201cforeign agents\u201d or face administrative and civil sanctions. The Observatory has repeatedly called for the abrogation of that law, which blatantly violates international human rights standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the April 8 hearing, the Saint Petersburg City Court will examine the appeal of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d and the objections presented by the Prosecutor’s office against the appeal. In its objections, the Prosecutor stresses that a report produced by ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d, entitled \u201cRoma, migrants, activists: victims of police abuse\u201d, was found \u201cby the [Leninsky] court [in December] to be aimed at influencing decisions of State authorities, changing their policies and influencing the public opinion\u201d, and that it was therefore a \u201cpolitical activity\u201d under Russian legislation. The Prosecutor also stresses that the submission of this report to the United Nations (UN) Committee Against Torture (CAT) in November 2012, as well as its distribution to \u201clawyers, journalists, other experts, and members of the official delegation of the Russian Federation to the UN\u201d had \u201cinfluenced the work of the UN Committee Against Torture [which subsequently] addressed 38 recommendations to the Russian Federation\u201d, urging the authorities, amongst others, to introduce legislative changes to provide criminal responsibility for torture, to repeal the obligation of NGOs to register as \u201cforeign agents\u201d in case they receive foreign funding, and to overrule earlier legislative changes on the notion of \u201cstate treason\u201d. The Prosecutor therefore maintains that the activities of ADC \u201cMemorial\u201d are falling under the scope of the law on \u201cforeign agents\u201d.