Non-chamber union

Independent human rights activists are becoming closer to opposition politicians

Domestic human rights organizations, who do not want to integrate into the vertical of civil society, seem to be ready for an alliance with parties opposed to the Kremlin. The convergence of interests of political opponents of the current government and a number of well-known public organizations was recorded by the II All-Russian Congress of Human Rights Defenders, held yesterday in Moscow, timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day. The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva, who spoke at the forum, tried to be careful in her statements and warned that she was in no way advocating “the joining of non-political public organizations to any political party.” However, she emphasized the need to join forces with the opposition in the fight for human rights. “We have already seen that isolated protests do not bring success, therefore, we must learn to act together,” she said.

It is noteworthy that joint actions with the opposition, which was represented at the congress, for example, by the leader of the United Civil Front, Garry Kasparov, are today announced by organizations that have failed to establish a permanent dialogue with the authorities. Just like five years ago, when the first All-Russian Congress “In Defense of Human Rights,” called “emergency,” took place , quite harsh criticism of the state, which was attacking democratic rights and freedoms in all directions, was heard from the forum’s rostrum. Moreover, some human rights activists believe that the situation with respect for human rights has only worsened. “If at the first congress we talked more about threats to human rights in Russia, now, it seems to me, we can already draw disappointing conclusions,” Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights center, who recently defiantly left the Presidential Council, told Vremya Novostei. to promote the development of civil society institutions and human rights. According to Mr. Orlov, everything that human rights activists feared in 2001 is now becoming the norm. And first of all, the rights of public organizations themselves are violated, the independence of which “apparently irritates the authorities.” The law on NGOs , in his opinion, “is intended precisely to suppress independent activity, to create the threat that today hangs over virtually any independent organization, that it will be chosen as a target of administrative pressure.” “The state always tends to infringe on rights. The role of civil society is to resist it in this, but the Russian authorities do not understand or do not want to understand this role of social activists, and they are crushing everyone under themselves,” Mr. Orlov believes.

Human rights activists again tend to blame the government for the politicization of independent social movements, which, in their opinion, is already encroaching on the economic and political rights of Russians. “The new election law, for example, deprives people of interest in elections and the right to vote,” Alla Gerber, president of the Holocaust Foundation, told Vremya Novostei. “And the so-called protection of the indigenous population is offensive to all people living in our country.”

Negotiations on joint actions with political movements will apparently continue at the Civil Congress, which begins its work today, which should gather a wider range of oppositionists. Ms. Gerber considers such an expansion of the interests of public organizations to be quite natural, since “NGOs today have ceased to be small-scale, have become wider and more voluminous and cover almost all social areas.”

Yulia KHOMCHENKO