Supporters of the Memorial human rights center, which was recognized as a “foreign agent” in 2014 and then, in 2021, liquidated by a court decision, created a new organization - the Memorial Human Rights Center. This was reported in the Full HRC 2.0 Telegram channel, which is run by supporters, and on the Facebook page of the Memorial society. The new organization will not start a legal entity under it.
“The new organization will document and publicize information about significant human rights violations and promote the protection of the rights of victims of gross violations, including political prisoners and vulnerable groups,” the channel says.
It also clarifies that the social networks of Memorial, specifically the human rights center, are being transferred to the new organization.
Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the Board of the Memorial Human Rights Center, told The Insider in more detail about what the Memorial Human Rights Center will do:
The cause of protecting human rights in Russia always finds people - from among the former members or employees of the human rights center. Of course, we do not have the opportunities and resources that we had before, but the tasks have not gone away. One of them is maintaining a list of political prisoners. It is solved by a separate team that left Russia. These people got together and formed an informal association Human Rights Defense Center “Memorial”.
We will try to assist in solving all those tasks that we dealt with before, because they have not gone away. For example, the problem of people who are fleeing the war in Ukraine. Russia refuses to comply with the decisions of the ECtHR, but there are those decisions that were made earlier, and according to which no one cancels the implementation. We have obligations to our applicants, and this case also needs to be continued, if not completed. The procedure for Russia's renunciation of obligations within the framework of the Council of Europe itself may become the subject of reciprocal consideration. It is still too early to say what exactly and how will be done, but the new organization will try to contribute to the solution of all these tasks.
On December 29, 2021, the Moscow City Court decided to liquidate the Human Rights Center Memorial.
The Moscow prosecutor's office demanded that the human rights center be closed due to violations of the law on foreign agents. In addition, a representative of the department during one of the previous meetings spoke about the presence in the actions of human rights activists of justifying terrorism and extremism. In the "Memorial" the claim was rejected.
At one of the meetings, the prosecutor stated that the human rights center grossly and repeatedly violated the law, interfered with the protection of the health and well-being of citizens, and it was necessary to liquidate it to protect their rights. In addition, according to the prosecutor, “the formation of a negative image of the state and the lack of labeling [of a foreign agent] can cause, among other things, a depressive state among citizens.”
