Supporters of Memorial Human Rights Centre announce launch of new public organisation

Supporters of the Memorial Human Rights Centre, which was liquidated in Russia earlier, have established a new public organisation with the same name, they announced on social media.

CEO of the new organisation Anastasia Garina told Novaya Gazeta. Europe that the centre had held its first meeting to outline its main areas of work.

“We know the priority areas of activity: protecting those affected by law enforcement arbitrariness, supporting political prisoners, and using international mechanisms of human rights protection,” Garina said.

In the near future, the organisation plans to work with Ukrainian refugees to ensure protection of their rights. Human rights programs are also planned in Russia’s North Caucasus region, member of the centre’s council Oleg Orlov said. At the same time, the organisation will continue to work with international human rights protection mechanisms. He noted that if the Russian government continues to ignore ECHR rulings, the organisation will use other mechanisms, such as the UN and the OSCE.

The new centre was established without a corresponding legal entity. Orlov said that Russia would not have allowed to establish a legal entity named Memorial, while the members of the organisation want to start their work as soon as possible. Supporters of the centre will work as volunteers for now without a salary.

Memorial is a non-governmental organisation established to research political repressions. Memorial International was established by human rights defenders Lev Ponomaryov and Andrei Sakharov in 1989.

The Memorial Human Rights Centre and Memorial International were included on Russia’s “foreign agent” list.

On 14 June, the ECHR ruled that Russia’s “foreign agent” law violates human rights. The court obligated Russia to pay out €10,000 in damages to 73 Russian NGOs, including Memorial, that filed the lawsuit.