Members of the human rights organization "Committee against Torture" decided to liquidate in connection with the inclusion in the register of non-profit organizations-foreign agents. This was announced by the chairman of the organization Sergey Babinets in his Telegram channel.

“We do not want to continue working and at the same time label ourselves as “foreign agents”. This term is considered an insult and slander. The Committee against Torture has been protecting the rights of citizens who have suffered from torture and inhuman treatment by government officials all their lives. Despite the obvious benefits of this mission, the authorities have been trying for many years to give it an alien and harmful outline, year after year recognizing NGOs that fight against torture in the register of foreign agents.

Apparently, the authorities give a signal that torture is becoming (or has already become) part of state policy and is not a problem. Here I would like to remind you about the Constitution, where torture is prohibited (for now). Torture is an absolute evil and must be fought against. It's an axiom! On the scale of human rights, "freedom from torture" is in first place. Nothing can be an excuse to diminish this right. The Committee against Torture is people, people who do not care what country they live in, people who do not give a damn about how the authorities, officials and security forces treat you and me, people, who want freedom from illegal violence and inhuman treatment. We want to live in Russia without torture, and we will definitely make our country better. This is our duty,” Babinets wrote.

He added that in the coming days he will talk about further plans.

The Committee Against Torture was founded by Nizhny Novgorod human rights activist Igor Kalyapin in 2000. The organization is engaged in public investigation of cases of torture by law enforcement officers. For the first time, the “Committee against Torture” was included in the register of “foreign agents” in 2015. Then human rights activists liquidated the company and created another one called the Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Soon the Ministry of Justice declared her a "foreign agent" as well. After that, the employees again liquidated the legal entity and continued to work without it. Since then, the organization has worked in six regions of Russia: in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Orenburg region, the Republic of Bashkortostan, the North Caucasus region, the Krasnodar Territory and Moscow.

Source: THE INSIDER