Rights in Russia is delighted to announce in partnership with the
EU-Russia Civil Society Forum an event in London on Tuesday, 4th October 2016, at which two of Russia’s leading civil society activists will speak: Valentina Cherevatenko, chair of Women of the Don, a human rights NGO based in Novocherkassk, Rostov region; and Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitor Golos, based in Moscow.
The event will be held at the
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA, on Tuesday, 4 October 2016, 6:30pm- 8pm. There will be an informal reception after the event from 8pm – 9pm.
To book places, please visit The Free Word Centre. For more information, you are welcome to e-mail
events@rightsinrussia.org. This event is free of charge. However, there will be an opportunity to make a donation to the organizers to help cover the costs of the event.
GRIGORY MELKONYANTS is co-chair of Russia’s preeminent independent election monitor
Golos, the Movement for the Defence of Voters’ Rights. Golos was originally founded in 2000. Since 2005 Golos has been a member of the
European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO). Together with leading Russian experts in 2008- 2010 Golos worked on creating an Electoral Code. In 2012 Golos was awarded the
Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. In 2013 the Ministry of Justice designated Golos as a ‘foreign agent’ on the grounds that it had received foreign funding (this was a reference to the 7,700 EUR Sakharov Prize – despite the fact that Golos had declined to accept the money) and that in creating the Electoral Code the organization had engaged in ‘political activities’. In 2013, Golos re-established itself as a ‘Movement’, bringing together all those who engaged in independent election monitoring in Russia since 2000. More recently, in 2014 and 2015, Golos has received two grants of state-funding – the so-called ‘
Presidential Grants’ - for its work on election monitoring.
VALENTINA CHEREVATENKO is the chair of the
“Women of the Don” Union and of the “Women of the Don” Foundation for Civil Society Development, two NGOs based in Novocherkassk in the Rostov Region (South Russia). The “Women of the Don” Union, originally established in 1993, has worked for more than twenty years in different areas of human rights, with a special emphasis on the rights of women: in particular, it has focused on gender discrimination, violence against women, and peace-building initiatives in the North Caucasus region. “Women of the Don” also provides free legal advice to the public, promotes dialogue and tolerance, and has worked to improve relations between the police and members of society. The Justice Ministry designated both “Women of the Don” Union (in 2014) and the “Women of the Don” Foundation (in 2015) as ‘foreign agent’ NGOs. In February 2016 the Ministry of Justice officially removed the “Women of the Don” Union from its list of foreign agents. In June 2016, however, Valentina Cherevatenko became the first individual to face criminal prosecution under the ‘foreign agent’ law for the alleged ‘malicious evasion of duties imposed by the law on non-profit organisations performing the functions of a foreign agent,’ a move condemned by
Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch,
Frontline Defenders and other human rights organizations.
