European Court orders Russia to suspend liquidation of the Memorial organisations

In response to the decisions today and yesterday taken by courts in Russia to liquidate International Memorial and Memorial Human Rights Center (MHRC), the European Court of Human Rights has today granted an application made by MHRC and EHRAC for the enforcement of the proceedings to be suspended.

The two organisations were informed in November 2021 that the Prosecutor General’s Office had filed a lawsuit seeking their liquidation over repeated violations of Russia’s ‘foreign agents’ legislation.

After repeated delays to court proceedings, on December 28, Russia’s Supreme Court ordered that Memorial International be shut down, and the following day, the Moscow City Court ordered the liquidation of MHRC.

The European Court’s order that these measures be suspended (under Rules 39 of the Court Rules) is legally binding on Russia and will remain in force pending the Court’s judgment in the cases relating to the ‘foreign agents’ law, which were lodged back in 2013.

All queries to be directed to pressEHRAC@mdx.ac.uk or directly to EHRAC director Philip Leach for comment at p.leach@mdx.ac.uk.