29 August 2007, 23:04
Picket with a demand to dissolve the Federal Registration Service held in Moscow
On August 28, opposite the building of the Federal Registration Service (FRS) in Moscow, a picket was held with a demand to liquidate this Service. The picket comprised about 40 representatives of human rights and non-commercial organizations from various regions of Russia, including residents of Moscow, Voronezh, Vladimir, Orel, Nizhni Novgorod, Cheboksary and Volgograd, and also members of the German Branch of the International Youth Human Rights Movement.
The protest action was initiated by the Youth Human Rights Group - Moscow and held under the "Week of Solidarity Actions" with the stopped NGOs.
The pretext for holding the "Week of Solidarity Actions" and the protest picket opposite the FRS building in Moscow was the situation with illegal "suspension of activities" of the Youth Human Rights Movement and over 600 other NGOs stopped in Russia after enactment of the new legislation regulating the activities of non-governmental organizations.
According to the results of the monitoring of the situation with the freedom of associations conducted by the Moscow Helsinki Group, the two years of FRS's operation resulted in closing of hundreds NGOs, and part of them were closed under FRS's initiative with roughest violations of the law. Now, every NGO, instead of dedicating its time to rendering real help to citizens, has to write from 20 to 40 reports every year.
