 Source: HRO.org (info) The international human rights organisation Human Rights Watch has called on the Russian Ministry of Justice to drop the law suit against the Russian Memorial Society. A spokesperson from the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, Tatiana Lokshina, called the situation surrounding Memorial unacceptable. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has postponed a hearing in the lawsuit filed by the Ministry Of Justice, calling for the dissolution of Memorial, until the 17th of December. This had previously been requested by both parties. The Ministry of Justice filed the lawsuit on the basis of numerous alleged violations of the law by the human rights organisation and two warnings issued against it. Memorial considers the complaints technicalities, but is prepared to rectify the apparent violations at their conference at the end of November. Chair of the board of Memorial, Arseny Roginsky, expressed the hope that the Ministry of Justice will withdraw its lawsuit after the amendments to the charter have been adopted. He told the Russian news agency TASS that the issues mainly concern the structure of the organisation. “Following the changes to the Civil Code, non-governmental organisations are only allowed to consist of individuals people, and we currently have as members both individuals and legal entities,” he noted. The human rights activist added that among the issues raised by the Ministry to be discussed at the upcoming conference is that of the purposes of the organization as laid down in its charter. The International Memorial Society is a non-governmental organisation whose main purpose was originally to conduct research into political repression in the USSR. Now it is a community of dozens of organisations in Russia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine which carry out research, human rights work and educational activities. Source: Radio Svoboda |
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