DUSHANBE, June 20, 2016, Asia-Plus – The Russian Ministry of Justice has designated Moscow-based “Migration and Law,” which is chaired by known human rights activist Gavhar Jourayeva, as ‘foreign agent’.
The Russian Justice Ministry’s website notes that the regional public association “Migration and Law” has been put on the list of non-profit organizations acting as ‘foreign agents’.
“Migration and Law” is a successor of the “Tajikistan” Foundation, which was established in 1996 to provide assistance to refugees and forced migrants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The organization provides assistance to labor migrants from the CIS countries and children of migrants from Moldova. “Migration and Law” provides round-the-clock information and legal support.
In 2002, the “Migration and Law” Integration Center launched a hotline with support from the Open Society Institute. The Center was reportedly registered with the Ministry of justice of the Russian Federation in 2012.
“The Justice Ministry’s decision must be upheld by a court,” Gavhar Jourayeva said in an interview with National Accent (Russian Guild of Inter-Ethnic Journalism). “We are not going to dispute any decision. We will be summoned to a court and we will make our arguments there.”
“We come out for change of not political but migration situation. We do not interfere in politics and we are not opposed to states with whose migrants we work,” Jourayeva said.
She expressed hope that a court will not uphold the justice ministry’s decision to designate “Migration ad Law” as ‘foreign agent’. According to her, about 30 of more than 130 organizations designated by the Russian Ministry of Justice as ‘foreign agents’ have managed to prove that they are not ‘foreign agents’.
Gavhar Jourayeva noted that whatever the result may be she is going to leave the organization.
She further added that the organization had failed to receive a presidential grant in Russia, and therefore, “it is forced to receive foreign grants.”
The Russian “foreign agent” law, officially “On Amendments to Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation regarding the Regulation of the Activities of Non-profit Organizations Performing the Functions of a Foreign Agent”, is a law in Russia that requires non-profit organizations that receive foreign donations and engage in “political activity” to register and declare themselves as foreign agents.
The bill was introduced in July 2012 by legislators from the governing United Russia party and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on July 20, 2012. The law went into effect in November 2012, but was not actively enforced until Vladimir Putin instructed law-enforcement officials to do so during a speech to members of the Federal Security Service (Russia) on Valentine”s Day 2013, stating that “Any direct or indirect interference in our internal affairs, any form of pressure on Russia, our allies and partners is unacceptable.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that since June 5, 2014, the Ministry of Justice of Russia has designated 131 groups as “foreign agents.” By June 10, 2016, at least 18 groups have shut down. Also, the Ministry has removed its “foreign agent” tag from 11 groups, acknowledging that they had stopped accepting foreign funding. Accordingly, on June 10, 2016, the official list of active “foreign agents” comprised 102 groups.
