Irkutsk: human rights activists celebrated the 80th anniversary of Alexander Lyuboslavsky

In Irkutsk, human rights activists discussed issues of protecting human rights. The conference was dedicated to the First Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia under the governor Alexander Lyoslavsky, who would have turned 80 years old today. The conference began with a minute of silence in memory of him and the memories of people who were friends and worked with him.

“When Lyoslavsky had conflicts with the governor, he came, put a tent in front of the building of the Irkutsk Region administration and announced a hunger strike. He starved until he achieved the result. He was a man of act,” said Leo Ponomarev, the head of the human rights movement.

During the conference, it was said that thanks to Alexander Lyoslavsky, many civilian activists from Irkutsk joined the human rights organization “Moscow Helsinki Group”.

"From Irkutsk, many pupils of the Lyoslavsky are employees of the Moscow Helsinki group. From Irkutsk, a member of the ICG Daniil Meshcheryakov. Now he is heading a human rights center in Ukraine. So, thanks to Alexander Mikhailovich Lyoslavsky, the region has become a forge of remarkable human rights defenders, not only for this city, but at least for these two countries," said the chairman of the Moscow Helsinki groups Lyudmila Alekseeva.

The conference participants believe that in Irkutsk it is necessary to perpetuate the memory of Alexander of the Lyuboslav Memorial Board and the assignment of it named after one of the city streets. This proposal was one of the points of the resolution that was adopted at the end of the event. The conference organizers will send the document to the governor of the region and mayor.

The conference of human rights activists was held in Irkutsk for the first time, its participants decided to make this event regular and hold every year on November 4.

The human rights activist died in 2005. There are only four words on the tombstone: "Alexander of Lyoslavsky is a knight of human rights."