March 6, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Tough new laws and bureaucratic hurdles prevent charities in Russia from doing their work, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.
The New York organization called on the Russian government to change regulations that the advocacy group says give it broad power to interfere in the operations of nonprofit groups.
“With the new rules, NGOs live under a looming threat of harassment,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a press release. “And this is a serious threat to freedom of expression in Russia.”
Mr. Roth was scheduled to present the report at a news conference in Moscow last month, but the Foreign Ministry, which knew of the report, denied him a visa. Mr. Roth is the first Human Rights Watch staff member to be refused a Russian visa since the fall of the Soviet Union, the organization said.
Submitting Documents
New rules facing nongovernmental organizations include a 2006 law that gives the Federal Registration Service, which is part of the Ministry of Justice, significant control over charities’ operations.
Under that legislation, Human Rights Watch said, the service can deny charities’ registration applications, conduct intrusive inspections of nonprofit groups, and demand extensive charity documents, including all correspondence.
Nonprofit groups have regularly been harassed by authorities operating under that law, the report said. Charities that work on sensitive issues or receive foreign grants have faced particular problems.
For example, state officials threatened throughout much of 2007 to dissolve the Information Center of the NGO Council, a nonprofit group that provides information on Chechnya and Ingushetia, for being improperly registered and failing to pay back taxes. The charity is contesting a fine of roughly $20,000.
“We’re not saying the Russian government is trying to shut down civil society, but it has certainly narrowed the space for it,” said Mr. Roth. “Russia’s NGO community is large and vibrant, and this is thanks to its own resilience and to Russia’s foreign partners, who have kept up pressure for freedom of expression. Now the government has to act, and Russia’s partners have to work with Russia to make sure this happens.”
Human Rights Watch urged the Russian government to remove some of the more-restrictive provisions that were passed as part of the 2006 law, and to take steps to repair the Federal Registration Service’s relationship with nonprofit organizations.
