20.02.10
The well-known Russian human rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina and the International Memorial Society have been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
The BBC reports that Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of the governing board of the International Memorial Society and director of the Civic Assistance Committee, has been nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize by Erna Solberg, leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party and a former Minister of Local Government and Regional Development in Norway.
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20.02.10
We are deeply concerned by an opening of a criminal case against Oleg Orlov, head of Human Rights Center "Memorial", recipient of the European Parliament's 2009 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Criminal prosecution for the expression of a personal opinion is a severe violation of constitutional rights. In a civilized country the prosecuting authorities should not allow themselves to be led by high-ranking officials who seek to protect themselves from criticism. President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov is trying to create a myth of Chechnya as a prosperous region where peace and stability reign.
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19.02.10
Sergei Kovalev’s address to the European Parliament after accepting the Sakharov Prize. Strasbourg, 16 December 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Memorial organisation, I would like to thank the European Parliament for its high accolade – the Sakharov Prize.
We at Memorial see this award as relating not only to our organisation. We take the view that, through us, the prize is being bestowed on the whole human rights community in Russia, and indeed more widely – on the entire section of Russian civil society sympathetic towards defenders of human rights. For forty years now – first in the Soviet Union and then in Russia – human rights defenders have been standing up for ‘European’, that is to say, universal values. This struggle has never been easy; in recent years it has become tragic, as it increasingly claims the lives of the best, the most active and the most fearless.
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