Source: HRO.org (info), 07/11/11 

· Human rights defenders 

On 4 November Moscow Helsinki Group and the international Youth Human Rights Movement announced the creation of a Rapid Reaction Centre for the protection of human rights defenders in Russia. 

The idea of creating a centre of this kind in Russia has been under discussion since 2009 when Stanislav Markelov and Natalya Estemirova were killed. At that time the large number of instances of threats and intimidation of human rights defenders showed that systematic measures were necessary to protect human rights defenders. 

The first partners of the Centre are Memorial Human Rights Centre, Agora Human Rights Association, Human Rights Network (Human Rights in Russia web portal) and the Independent Centre for Legal Expertise. Members of the Centre’s Public Council are human rights defenders Ludmila Alekseeva, Valentin Gefter, Yury Dzhibladze and Andrei Yurov. [Read more]