The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia and Canada refuse to close the memorial | world | DW

The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have rejected the Russian judiciary’s decision to liquidate the NGO Memorial International and the Memorial Center for Human Rights. This was clarified in a joint statement in which they stressed that the work of this body was “never necessary.”

“We regret the decision of two Russian courts to forcibly close Memorial International and the Memorial Center for Human Rights,” they said. They also stressed that the two organizations were doing “peaceful work” and that “we cannot accept” the judges’ assertions that the entities justify extremism and terrorism.

Decisions adopted by the courts on Tuesday (12.28.2021) and Wednesday (12.29.2021) of this week led to the closure of the main human rights organization in Russia and the voice of Soviet retaliation, which was created in 1987 when the USSR was not yet gone.

“For more than three decades, Memorial has played a unique role in documenting historical crimes and in restoring the memory of the country’s tens of millions of victims of political oppression for future generations,” noted Brussels, Washington, London, Canberra and Ottawa. They continued, “He has also tirelessly advocated the protection of human rights in Russia, denounced egregious abuses, including in the North Caucasus, and kept a growing list of people he considers political prisoners.”

Citing their condemnation of the Russian law on foreign agents, they said the “excessive decision to silence the memorial comes after many months of systematic and in-depth repression in Russia” against human rights defenders, independent media reported. Members of opposition political and religious minority groups. In the statement, they argued, “the people of Russia, as elsewhere in the world, have the right to freedom of expression and association, including the defense of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Both organizations announced that they would appeal the ruling to the Russian courts and intend to appear before the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

Million (Eve, Reuters)