1 February, 2023: "You are destroying the human rights movement, you are destroying it," said Valery Borshov, co-chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group. What is MHG, how was it formed and why is it closing down ? Read to know more.
The Moscow Helsinki Group, the oldest human rights organization in Russia, was instructed to stop operating by the Moscow City Court.
According to the complaint submitted by the ministry in December, the organization violated its mandate by conducting activities across the entirety of Russia since it is only permitted to conduct regional activities for regional human rights organizations. The ministry conducted a number of informal inspections to back up their allegations.
"This is the oldest human rights organization in the country, and from the first days of its existence, it has been carrying out extensive, consolidating work. Therefore, the claims put forward are absurd. Human rights are extraterritorial," said the group’s representative.
The group claimed that the impromptu inspections of the MHG by the justice ministry were unconstitutional, which was the basis for the case. It has stated that it will challenge the ruling.
MHG has had to stop operating on more than one occasion. After barely a few months of operation in the 1970s, the government imprisoned or drove nearly all of its participants into exile.
The Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), which was established in 1976, publishes a yearly report on the state of human rights in Russia. The 1975 Final Helsinki Act, which 35 countries, including major European nations, the US, and Canada, signed, led to the establishment of the Moscow Helsinki Group in an effort to strengthen the peace accord between the USSR and the West.
Yuri Orlov, the founder and first chairman of the MHG, envisioned its goal as follows: “The Group will monitor compliance with the humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Accords on the territory of the USSR and inform all States that have signed that document along with the Soviet Union of any violations.”
In Picture: Yuri Orlov
Source: The Moscow Helsinki Group
Picture source: TWITTER
The government has recently stated that it does not possess the proper registration.
The attempt to shut down Helsinki was criticized by Western nations and human rights organizations as another indicator of Russia's worsening humanitarian crisis. The Human Rights Foundation, a US-based NGO, has denounced Russia's move to close down MHG. In a tweet they said, "This is yet another example of the Kremlin's campaign to silence opposition against the war in Ukraine,"
