25/06/2013 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 25.06.2013 - Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE), rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the strengthening the protection and role of human rights defenders, has expressed serious concern at Russia’s “Foreign Agents” legislation.
“I am worried about the hostile climate in which human rights defenders have been working in Russia since the adoption of the Law on “Foreign Agents”. This law, which targets NGOs receiving funds from abroad and stigmatizes them as “spies”, raises serious doubts as to its compatibility with international human rights standards. I have been observing its implementation for the last few months and it is now clear to me that the wave of inspections which have been recently carried out at hundreds of NGOs amounts to a widespread intimidation of Russian civil society. I therefore call on the Russian authorities to stop harassment and intimidation of NGOs and to review the controversial legislation in line with international human rights standards.”
The Law on Non-Commercial Organisations (NCOs) Performing the Function of Foreign Agents was adopted in November 2012 and may affect more than a thousand NGOs across Russia. It requires all foreign-funded NGOs “engaging in political activities” to register as “foreign agents” and provides for the imposition of very high fines on the NGOS and their leaders in case of non-compliance with the new registration obligations. Since late February 2013, a wave of inspections has been targeted at hundreds of NGOs, including Golos, Memorial and the Amnesty International office in Moscow. Some of them have resulted in the imposition of severe penalties, as in the case of Golos, the leading Russian NGO which monitors elections.