Eva Merkacheva: Not a single “real human rights activist” was included in the new regional POCs

Member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, MK journalist Eva Merkacheva stated that not a single “real human rights activist” was included in the new compositions of public monitoring commissions (PMCs) announced for 43 regions of the Russian Federation.

Among those who unsuccessfully ran for the POC, Merkacheva mentioned the chairman of the first composition of the Moscow POC, one of the founders of the institute of public control Valery Borshchev, the founder of the Committee against Torture Igor Kalyapin (he was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod POC ), the executive director of the Moscow Helsinki Group Svetlana Astrakhantseva, human rights activist Lyubov Volkova and journalist Boris Klin (members of the Moscow POC ) and Ekaterina Sazhneva (member of the Moscow Region POC).

Eva Merkacheva herself, who was a member of the Moscow commission, is also not on the list. Zoya Svetova, who, like Astrakhantseva, was nominated by the Moscow Helsinki Group, is also not on the Moscow POC.

At the same time, according to the journalist, the Kirov POC has once again included priest Vladimir Putintsev, who, as follows from her words, openly ignores complaints from local prisoners about violence and other violations of rights. There is no public information about many other new members of the POC, Merkacheva noted.

This rotation is explained very simply. When the very concept of "human rights" loses its meaning for some characters, it seems to them that there is no need for institutions to protect it. This is exactly what happened with the Public Monitoring Commissions.