On May 12 1976 a group of 11 human rights activists announced the creation of the Moscow Helsinki Group [Public Group to Promote Implementation of the Helsinki Accords in the USSR - Общественная группа содействия выполнению хельсинкских соглашений в СССР] at a press conference held in the apartment of Andrei Sakharov in Moscow. The original 11 participants in the press conference were: Yury Orlov, Natan Sharansky, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, Aleksandr Korchak, Malva Landa, Vitaly Rubin, Yelena Bonner, Aleksandr Ginzburg, Anatoly Marchenko, Pyotr Grigorenko, and Mikhail Bernshtam. The original 11 were shortly joined by ten more activists. The Moscow Helsinki Group announced its intention was to monitor Soviet compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act, signed in August 1975 by the Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, and all European countries (except Albania which signed in 1991).