CSEW: December 1993

Moscow Research Center for Human Rights

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For Russia and other nations formerly in the Soviet Union, the gains in political and civil liberties achieved since the late eighties have not been as great as many Westerners assume. According to Freedom House’s annual survey, "Freedom Around the World" 1994,-- only Estonia and Lithuania today qualify as "free states." Eight nations--Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and the Kyrgyz Republic--are classified as "partly free," while four others--Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan--are considered "not free." Additionally, the December election results in Russia opened the question: how broad and durable are that society’s commitments to democratic values and fundamental principles of human rights?

This month "Civil Society . . . East and West" draws attention to the continu-ing importance of the "old" issues of human rights, rule of law, and democratization, by profiling the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights, a consortium of human rights organizations established in 1991.

The principal aim of the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights (MRCHR) is "to create a powerful network of non-governmental human rights groups capable of carrying out practical reforms." Founded by such long-standing human rights advocates as Sergei Kovalyov (chairman), Valery Abramkin, Elena Bonner, Larisa Bogoraz, Valery Borschov, Alexander Lavut, Lev Timofeev, and Boris Zolotukhin, MRCHR seeks to overcome the isolation and lack of coordination that historically marked human rights activities in Russia.

Today, the Research Center defines the major challenges to the institution-alization of human rights in Russian society as follows:

Deeply unsettled political and economic conditions raise the likelihood of social conflict and the potential for abuse of human rights.
Seventy years of communism have severely eroded the very idea of individual rights.
Within the population there is a continued reluctance to report human rights violations, for fear of reprisals.
Legislation in the field of human rights, and the administrative procedures required to enforce such legislation, remain highly underdeveloped in Russia.

The Research Center is made up of 15 groups which share office space in central Moscow. They describe it as "the first such office open to the public where anyone can bring human rights complaints and appeals without fear of reprisals." Member organizations follow a schedule that allows them to use the offices during assigned hours. Most organizations are also involved in outreach activities: e.g., providing direct assistance to the disabled, persons being held in psychiatric hospitals, prisoners (both political and criminal), those sentenced to death, military personnel and their families, refugees, and persons denied permission to emigrate.

For more information, contact:

Alexei Smirnov, Director
Moscow Research Center for Human Rights
Louchnikov Lane 4, apt. 5
Moscow 103982
Tel: (095) 206-0923
Fax: (095) 206-8853
E-mail: [email protected]

This article is from the December 1993 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West

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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/93-12/moshrctr.html
Last updated: December 1993

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