The Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, Nils Muiznieks, has been requested by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to look into a group of cases lodged against the Russian law on “foreign agents”. On Thursday 13 July, the Commissioner described this law as, “incompatible with international and European standards”.
This law was adopted in 2012 and closely controls NGOs that benefit from foreign funding. Threatened by fines and/or imprisonment, these NGOs are obliged to regularly publish their sources of income and identify themselves as “foreign agents” in all media resources used. The Commissioner for Human Rights has said that this measure has sometimes had “serious consequences” and he has denounced the “ostracism, harassment and indeed physical aggression” against people working for these bodies”.
The law obviously only involves NGOs engaged in “political activities” but the significant ambiguity surrounding this term in the interpretation used in Russia by the authorities, public ministers and judges, allows the scope to be applied to activities that “constitute an important element in the democratic fabric of society” explains the Commissioner for Human Rights. In this regard, the role of “sentry” played by “civil society groups monitoring the compliance of acts by the public authorities with human rights” is mentioned.
According to Mr Muiznieks, “non-commercial organisations should be free to solicit and receive funding not only from public bodies in their own state but also from institutional or individual donors, another state or multilateral agencies, subject only to the laws on customs, foreign exchange and money-laundering, as well as those on elections and funding of political parties”.
The Commissioner also said that the “law on foreign agents” has already “considerably encroached on the freedom of association and expression". (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)