Russian rights veterans issue statement in support of ‘foreign agent’ NGOs

(Interfax – Moscow, June 6, 2013) A number of Russian rights activists have stood up for the Golos NGO and other organizations that have been labelled foreign agents, saying that their work should not be labelled political.

“Accusations about NGOs taking part in political activities strikes out citizens’ constitutional rights,” reads Rights Council statement released in Moscow on Thursday (6 June).

The document was signed by Moscow Helsinki Group chair Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the head of the For Human Rights movement, Lev Ponomarev, the head of the Civil Assistance committee, Svetlana Gannushkina, Memorial rights centre head Oleg Orlov and others.

“The attack on Golos, as well as the attack on the Kostroma Centre for Supporting Public Initiatives and the Kostroma Soldiers’ Mothers Committee are inextricable parts of the current bullying of hundreds of NGOs, which are being subjected to unmotivated checks,” the statement says.

“We consider assertions about an organization that led the fight for fair elections in Russia acting in the interests of foreign states and being a foreign agent to be absurd. We are categorically against (the notion) that public control over the actions of politicians, parties and the authorities amounts to political activities,” the authors note.

“Through their status, confirmed by international law, rights protection organizations, including those represented by members of the Rights Council, influence public opinion, officials and deputies with a view to ensuring the strict observation of human and citizen rights and freedoms,” the statement says.

“Just the same, the strengthening of mutual understanding between people and states, clarifying the positions of parties to international relations is not politics. Such work is the civil duty of every citizen, every true public body. And we declare that we will continue such work, no matter how officials qualify it,” the document says.

According to the authors, the Russian constitution “guarantees every citizen of our country and associations (of citizens) the right to freely state their opinions about what is happening and the right to appeal to state bodies. Interpreting such actions as politics is tantamount to illegally narrowing human rights”.

Rights activists say that in all circumstances they will seek to help the development of civil control over the authorities and shape public opinion in favour of democratic principles and basic freedoms.

Regional public organization Golos was fined R300,000 (just under 10,000 dollars) on Tuesday (4 June) for refusing to register as a foreign agent. The same earlier happened to the association of the same name.