The Moscow Helsinki Group celebrates its thirtieth anniversary

The May 12th jubilee conference dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the Moscow-Helsinki Group took place in Moscow. The Conference summed up MHG’s activities; current state of human rights in the Russian Federation was also discussed. The conference was held under the slogan “United we can’t be defeated!” (19-MAY-06)

Text and photos: HRH / Moscow, Yanina Savenko

The Moscow-Helsinki Group was established 30 years ago by the initiative of famous physicist and human rights activist Yuri Orlov. Its aim was to carry out control over Soviet government’s activities in the human rights sphere. In the previous year on the 1st August 1975 the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, came to the end. The leaders of the USSR, having signed the Concluding Accord of the Conference, assumed obligations to follow the international standards on human rights. However, from the very beginning of its existence MHG was persecuted by the government. Some of its members were arrested and sentenced to jail terms and exile; others were forced to immigrate. In 1982 MHG was forced to self-dissolve due to ceaseless repressive measures. Nevertheless, human rights activists Larisa Bogoraz, Sergey Kovalev, Viatcheslav Bakhmin, Alexey Smirnov, Lev Timofeev and Boris Zolotukhin, who were joined by, Yuri Orlov, Ludmilla Alexeeva and Kronid Lubarsky reestablished the MHG on 28th July 1989.

Warmest congratulations
Yury Orlov, founder of MHG and its first Chairman, members of MHG including its  present Chairwoman Ludmila Alekseeva, Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin, leaders of human rights organizations, representatives of Embassies, international organizations and foreign funds; well-known Russian politicians, members of parties and democratic movements took part in the jubilee conference and congratulated MHG activists on this outstanding event. It was generally agreed that Moscow Helsinki Group is the most respected contemporary Russian human rights organization. Moreover, all the speakers believed that this celebration was a great and important day, not only for MHG members, but for everyone. During its existence MHG has become a symbol of the human rights movement in the Russian Federation.

Human rights activists of the world, unite!
Today the main task of the Moscow HG consists of providing support to regional human rights organizations. It is believed that neither political nor economic stability is possible without cooperation of society and authorities. “If NGOs stop social control over authorities, the authorities will push NGOs immediately around, – said leader of MHG Ludmila Alekseeva. Talking about great variety and effective work of regional human rights organizations, she emphasized the importance of their close collaboration. Such consolidation gives hope that great difficulties, caused by the new NGO legislation, will be overcome. In spite of this legislation, aimed at repressing the human rights movement, today MHG celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. The words of Ludmila Alekseeva : “United we can’t be defeated!” became the slogan of the conference.