The United Nations has condemned the court order to close the Helsinki Group, Russia’s oldest human rights NGO, and warned that it is «another blow to human rights and civic space» in a country that has «intensified» its crackdown on dissent since the start of the military offensive in Ukraine.
The Russian government demanded the liquidation of the NGO for extending its activities beyond Moscow and, although the judicial resolution can be appealed, the spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Marta Hurtado, has called for respecting international standards.
In this sense, she warned that any limit to the freedoms of expression and association, «central in democratic societies», must be undertaken under criteria of «necessity and proportionality» and provided there is a «legitimate» purpose.
«The Russian authorities should refrain from applying measures that repress the reporting of serious problems of public interest and allow the debate of diverse and plural voices, within society and also in the media, in line with human rights obligations,» Hurtado said in a statement.
For its part, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) deplored the closure in a joint statement with members from Georgia, the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as the chairman, vice-chairman and rapporteur.
«As an organization founded by Soviet dissidents in 1976 to help ensure the implementation of the human dimension commitments set out in the OSCE’s founding document, the Helsinki Final Act, the Moscow Helsinki Group has for nearly five decades been an essential component of Russian civil society,» it stressed.
In this regard, he called its dissolution a «symbolic blow to the OSCE’s comprehensive security model,» as well as a «setback for the protection of human rights in Russia.» «Closing the organization could contravene Russia’s OSCE commitments to freedom of association,» he warned. Thus, he has urged the Russian authorities to reverse the situation and put an end to the repression of critical voices.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
