This report: "Torture and Ill-treatment of human rights defenders and activists during external and internal conflict situations" reviews the practices of torture and ill-treatment of human rights defenders and civic activists during conflict situations, including armed conflict, as well as civil unrest and mass protests brutally suppressed by the authorities u
Human Rights House-Voronezh: This is not a victory yet
31.10.2013
Organisations and activists of the Human Rights House-Voronezh are grateful for the support they have received, but ask to go on with the campaign to save this unique human rights centre.
The numerous inhabitants of the Human Rights House-Voronezh are very thankful for all support they’ve received so far: "We’ve received a huge number of letters, signatures on petitions, attention and other different signs of support from various cities and countries. Only after our joint campaign and your effort the Voronezh Ombudsman and the Governor of Voronezh Region spoke out about our problems in public."
Nevertheless, the situation with the head office of the Human Rights House-Voronezh stays unsolved; the human rights organisations are still sitting on a time bomb. At the moment both organizations that rent the office have received notifications that cancel letters on dissolution of the contract. This is not a victory, though, they still haven’t signed a new rental agreement. The local authorities are neither ready to discuss new favourable rental conditions, nor give them more time to pay current debts. This means that the human rights activists have no guarantee that in a few months all problems will start again.
That is why the Campaign in support of the Human Rights House goes on. Without the final joint action the HRH-Voronezh can be closed down in the nearest future, and then all the earlier efforts would go in vain. That is why your help is needed again.
What you can do at this point:
- Send a letter to a new mayor of Voronezh asking for his support. The new mayor was elected only a month ago and he is not aware of the current situation. That’s why we need to address him;
- Vote for the Human Rights House which is nominated for a national Civil Initiative award (pay attention that it is necessary to grade us before pushing the „vote” buton);
- Sign the petition (for those who haven’t done that yet);
- Sign a regional petiton in your city or create one if it doesn’t exist yet.
If you would like to find out what else can be done in support of the Human Rights House and you are ready to support us in any other ways, please write to campaign coordinators at save@hrworld.ru
More details can be found on the Campaign website.
