{"id":9876,"date":"2016-02-17T13:47:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T11:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/?p=9876"},"modified":"2016-03-20T10:13:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T08:13:31","slug":"inclo-members-condemn-the-curtailing-of-civil-society-space-in-russia-and-the-shutdown-of-agora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/2016\/02\/17\/inclo-members-condemn-the-curtailing-of-civil-society-space-in-russia-and-the-shutdown-of-agora\/","title":{"rendered":"INCLO members condemn the curtailing of civil society space in Russia and the shutdown of Agora"},"content":{"rendered":"

The undersigned organizations\u2014members of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO), who are deeply committed to supporting civil society space\u2014condemn the shutdown of one of INCLO\u2019s member organizations, the Agora Human Rights Association in Russia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The crackdown on independent civil society hit a new low in Russia, when last week (February 10, 2016) a regional court issued a ruling to dissolve the Agora Human Rights Association. Agora is a network of lawyers and activists. The organization is known in Russia for defending civil liberties and victims of political prosecution; their clients include the Pussy Riot band and\u00a0the Crimean activist Olexander Kolchenko, among others.\u00a0The administrative lawsuit was filed by the Ministry of Justice, alleging that Agora is involved in \u201cpolitical activities\u201d, which is defined as actions aimed at influencing government or public opinion by the infamous 2012 \u201cforeign agent\u201d law. Agora is appealing the court ruling at Russia\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We believe that a dynamic and independent civil society plays a fundamental role in a democratic society, as it is one of the key checks and balances on governing power and\u00a0it represents the interest of minorities. As stated in the resolution on civil society space approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council\u2019s 27th<\/sup>\u00a0session, States have \u201cto create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment in which civil society can operate free from hindrance and insecurity.\u201d Therefore, we stand in solidarity with Agora and all the independent non-governmental organizations, including our members, whose work is jeopardized by restrictive state actions, and we call on governments to protect civil society space.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The following\u00a0INCLO member organizations support the statement:<\/p>\n

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
\nAssociation for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
\nCanadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)
\nCentro de Estudios Sociales y Legales (CELS)
\nEgyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
\nHungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU)
\nHuman Rights Law Network (HRLN)
\nIrish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL)
\nKenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
\nLegal Resources Centre (LRC)
\nLiberty<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Note to editors:<\/p>\n

The governmental\u00a0control of non-governmental organizations started to tighten in 2006 with a NGO law already aimed at controlling foreign funding in Russia. The\u00a02012 law introduced the phenomenon of \u201cforeign agent\u201d labeling organizations as such which fulfill two criteria: they accept foreign funding and their activities fall within the rather vague definition of \u201cpolitical activity\u201d. By the end of 2015, over 100 non-governmental organizations were forcibly registered as foreign agents contributing to the vilification of human rights work in Russia. In June, 2015, a new act on \u201cundesirable foreign organizations\u201d came into force that authorizes the extrajudicial banning of foreign and international groups which allegedly undermine Russia\u2019s security, defense and constitutional order. The National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundations were designated as undesirable, for which both foreign donors stopped their funding preventively.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"INCLO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The undersigned organizations\u2014members of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO), who are deeply committed to supporting civil society … Read more…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-democratic-legislation","category-democracy-and-civil-liberties"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9879,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9876\/revisions\/9879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}