Thursday, January 11, 2007

Sign this. Deadline: January 22, 2007.

Russian Organization Faces Crucial Court Hearing

Urge President Putin to Cease Harassment of Independent Human Rights Defenders

Click Here to Take Action.

On January 23, 2007 the Federal Supreme Court in Moscow will hear the appeal against an order to close a human rights organization, the Russian Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS), issued by a court in Nizhny Novgorod on October 13, 2006.

The organization has suffered a long history of threats, harassment and attacks that appear designed to silence its work as one of the few remaining independent organizations reporting on human rights violations in the context of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya and the North Caucasus.


Enforcing the closure of RCFS would send a chilling message to other human rights defenders in Russia, particularly in the aftermath of the unsolved killing of the eminent journalist and activist Anna Politkovskaya.

We ask you to urge the Russian government to uphold basic freedoms of expression and association, and cease harassment and interference with the work of independent human rights organizations. The Russian government should withdraw its opposition to the organization's appeal, and the closure order against RCFS should be lifted.

Click Here to Take Action.

Learn more about the harassment faced by RCFS.

1 comment:

Ivan Lavlinski said...

your basic freedom of expressions spill into shariat animalistic laws and countless insurgency terrorist attacks while you enjoy your happy-yappy life in Helsinki from afar.