Russia‘s oldest human rights group, the Moscow Helsinki Group, on Wednesday was ordered closed down by the Moscow City Court.
“Satisfy the request of the Ministry of Justice on the liquidation of the human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group,” the courtroom mentioned.
The case filed by the ministry in December accused the group of finishing up its actions all through Russia in violation of its constitution, which solely permits regional actions for a regional human rights group.
The ministry did a number of unannounced inspections to show its claims.
The Moscow legal professional’s workplace supported the ministry, saying the outcomes of inspections had been “objective” and that the violations dedicated by the group can’t be corrected.
The group’s consultant informed the courtroom that closing it quantities to destroying “a unique social phenomenon.”
The consultant famous that when it was created, the Moscow Helsinki Group was conceived as “a consolidating body for the Russian human rights movement.”
“This is the oldest human rights organization in the country, and from the first days of its existence it has been carrying out extensive, consolidating work. Therefore, the claims put forward are absurd. Human rights are extraterritorial,” he mentioned.
The Moscow Helsinki Group was shaped beneath the 1975 Final Helsinki Act, signed by 35 nations, together with many European international locations and the U.S. and Canada, in an try to enhance detente between the united states and the West.
The Western-funded group was established to watch Soviet compliance with the settlement.
Western international locations and human rights teams had referred to as the hassle to shutter Helsinki one other signal of Russia’s deteriorating human rights state of affairs.
