RUSSIA: BUREAUCRATIC ERROR SNAGS HUMAN RIGHTS NGO

UNCLAS MOSCOW 003991 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA: BUREAUCRATIC ERROR SNAGS HUMAN RIGHTS NGO REF: A. MOSCOW 695 (NOTAL) ¶B. MOSCOW 1839 (NOTAL) ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The NGO "International Youth Human Rights Movement" (YHRM) learned last week that it had been deregistered by a Nizhny Novgorod court in June. YHRM has appealed the deregistration which, according to Human Rights Watch, was apparently the result of compounded bureaucratic errors, rather than government targeting of this human rights NGO. YHRM is able to continue operating pending an appeal. End Summary. -------------- Deregistration and Appeal -------------- ¶2. (U) Prior to 2004, YHRM had been registered locally in Nizhny Novgorod, according to its president Andrey Yurov. Starting in 2004, YHRM registered as an international NGO with the central Federal Registration Service (FRS) as required by law of all international NGOs. At this time, even though YHRM was now based in Voronezh and registered in Moscow, it was not removed from the Nizhny Novgorod list. According to Yurov, the YHRM currently files all required annual reports with the central FRS. ¶3. (U) During the spring of 2007, the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Federal Registration Service (FRS),following a request from FRS headquarters to remove defunct NGOs from the registration rolls, sent letters to all NGOs on the local list who had not filed reports within the prior 12 months. The letters notified the NGOs that their registration would be revoked and their organizations dissolved unless they kept their NGO active by filing the required annual reports. The Nizhny Novgorod FRS had an incorrect address for YHRM, and therefore the warning letter was not received. The Nizhny Novgorod court in June noted in its decision that YHRM had not responded to the FRS letter and had failed to respond to the court hearing notice (also sent to the same incorrect address) and declared the group dissolved. ¶4. (U) On August 9, YHRM filed an appeal with this district court on the grounds that neither the FRS nor the court had properly notified them of the pending actions, as required by law. YHRM attorney Olga Gnezdilova told us that, following a successful appeal, YHRM will then contest the original FRS allegations with evidence that YHRM has filed annual reports with the Moscow FRS for the last four years. YHRM has requested that the district court rule on the appeal within 10 days (a limit also specified in the law). Complete text of the district court decision and the YHRM appeal may be found at www.defence.yhrm.org. If the district court denies the appeal, Yurov said that he plans to appeal to the oblast court, supreme court, and European Court of Human Rights as needed. In the meantime, the deregistration decision has not taken effect, and YHRM is able to operate freely. -------------- A Mistake, not Malice -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Inara Golpe-Langenushka of Human Rights Watch told us that they had been following the case closely, but were convinced that this was a bureaucratic error, not an attack on human rights groups. The Nizhny Novgorod branch of the FRS had tried to comply with the requirements to remove defunct NGOs from the registry and simply had the wrong address. ¶6. (SBU) Poloff met with Gnezdilova and YHRM President Andrey Yurov during a August 6-8 trip to Voronezh. Gnezdilova and Yurov complained about the red tape that NGOs face trying to comply with the 2006 NGO law (Refs A and B). "Even small NGOs require one or two staff members just to comply with the federal regulations," said Yurov. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: The fact that YHRM is being allowed to continue to operate pending an appeal suggests that this indeed does appear to be a case of bureaucratic error. Nonetheless, this case merits close attention, and we will track the progress of Yarov's appeal and subsequent actions by the Nizhny Novgorod FRS. RUSSELL