Supreme Court of Russia decides to liquidate “For Human Rights” movement
On 1 November 2019, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled in favour of the Russian Ministry of Justice’ request to liquidate the “For Human Rights” movement. Early in October 2019, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit against the movement for “multiple constitutional violations”.
Lev Ponomarev has been working as a human rights defender since 1980s. He is the head of the movement For Human Rights which keeps track and reports a wide spectrum of human rights violations including freedom of expression, refugee rights, trials monitoring and freedom of association. The human rights defender is a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. He also took part in the creation of Human Rights Center “Memorial”.
On 1 November 2019, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled in favour of the Russian Ministry of Justice’ request to liquidate the “For Human Rights” movement. Early in October 2019, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit against the movement for “multiple constitutional violations”.
“For Human Rights” is a Russian human rights movement founded by human rights defender Lev Ponomarev which provides free legal, social and humanitarian assistance to victims of human rights violations.
On 8 October 2019, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court of Russia requesting the liquidation of “For Human Rights”. The Ministry made the request on the basis that there were “administrative irregularities” that conflicted with the “foreign agents” law, resulting in “multiple constitutional violations”. In addition, the movement’s charter was argued not to comply with the 2014 amendments to the Civil Code. Representatives of the “For Human Rights” movement requested an extension to amend their charter, arguing that the it was approved before the amendments came into force. The Ministry of Justice did not respond to their request.
In February 2019, “For Human Rights” was placed on the government’s register of "foreign agents" for the second time. The movement had already been placed on the register in 2014, but was removed a year later. In the last two months, “For Human Rights” has been fined five times for not stating its "foreign agent" status in publications on its website, on Facebook and in the media, therefore violating the "foreign agents" law. On 7 December 2018, the Ministry of Justice received a request from the General Prosecution to conduct an off-schedule investigation into “For Human Rights”. The request came a day after Lev Ponomarev was arrested for 25 days for taking part in a solidarity campaign supporting the prosecuted members of of “Set’” and “Novoe velichie”.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the Supreme Court’s decision to liquidate human rights movement “For Human Rights”. Front Line Defenders strongly believes that the Supreme Court’s sentence is disproportionate to the violations of the movement and that the "foreign agents” law is used arbitrarily by authorities to suppress human rights work in Russia.
