{"id":6823,"date":"2026-02-28T14:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ehrac.org.uk\/?post_type=case-studies&#038;p=6823"},"modified":"2026-04-11T12:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:36:52","slug":"challenging-foreign-agent-laws-russia-ecodefence","status":"publish","type":"case-studies","link":"http:\/\/ehrac.org.uk\/en_gb\/key-ehrac-cases\/challenging-foreign-agent-laws-russia-ecodefence\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging the use of foreign agent laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_6adadd0bac376\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row standard_section \"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap\"><div class=\"row-bg\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row-bg-overlay\" ><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-t-w-inherits=\"default\" data-bg-cover=\"\" data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-hover-bg=\"\" data-hover-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" ><div class=\"column-bg-overlay-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\"><div class=\"column-bg-overlay\"><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\r\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\r\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\r\n\t\t<p>In 2012, the Russian Parliament amended a number of laws relating to the funding and governance of civil society organisations (CSOs). These changes became known collectively as the \u2018Foreign Agents Act\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Progressive organisations in Russia had come to rely on funding from abroad. The \u2018Foreign Agents Act\u2019 sought to stigmatise these CSOs and the people who worked for them. It placed an extraordinary administrative burden on the CSOs, gave the state far-reaching and arbitrary investigative powers, and undermined CSOs\u2019 ability to support vulnerable clients and hold the Russian Government accountable.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The case<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In 2013, EHRAC and Russian partner lawyers brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on behalf of a number of CSOs that had been listed as \u2018foreign agents\u2019 under the \u2018Act\u2019 or whose officer(s) had been punished for breaching the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, the ECtHR accepted our request for interim measures to protect our litigation partner Memorial Human Rights Centre and its sister organisation International Memorial, from liquidation. Both were applicants in the case.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the ECtHR found that Russia had violated the right of 73 CSOs to freedom of assembly and association. Attaching the label \u2018foreign agent\u2019 to CSOs had been \u2018unjustified and prejudicial\u2019 and could have a \u2018strong deterrent and stigmatising effect on (the CSOs\u2019) operations\u2019. The use of terms like \u2018political activities\u2019 and \u2018foreign funding\u2019 were ambiguous.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What our litigation achieved<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This judgment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ejiltalk.org\/ecodefence-v-russia-the-ecthrs-stance-on-foreign-funding-of-civil-society\/\">clarified a long-standing debate on foreign funding<\/a>, with the ECtHR confirming that attempts by a member state to restrict the foreign funding of NGOs would amount to a violation of the freedom of association.<\/p>\n<p>This judgment has been cited in three further ECtHR judgments. It was also referenced in the debate on a similar law in Georgia which we are now litigating.<\/p>\n<p>The ECtHR\u2019s decision to grant our request for interim measures to save Memorial and International Memorial from closure was an important and unprecedented development of the Court\u2019s practice. On 8 March 2022, the ECtHR granted a further request ordering Russia to halt its attempts to close the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2012, the Russian Parliament amended a number of laws relating to the funding and governance of civil society organisations (CSOs). These changes became known collectively as the \u2018Foreign Agents...","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"country":[26],"theme":[116],"category":[125],"class_list":["post-6823","case-studies","type-case-studies","status-publish","format-standard","country-russia","theme-civic-space-and-democratic-accountability","case-category-impact-case-study"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Challenging the use of foreign agent laws - European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2012, the Russian Duma amended a number of laws related to the international funding and governance of civil society organisations (CSOs), legislative changes which collectively became known as the \u2018Foreign Agents Act\u2019. Progressive organisations in Russia had come to rely on funding from abroad. The \u2018Foreign Agents Act\u2019 sought to stigmatise CSOs and the people who worked for them. In 2013, EHRAC and Russian partner lawyers brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on behalf of a number of CSOs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ehrac.org.uk\/en_gb\/key-ehrac-cases\/challenging-foreign-agent-laws-russia-ecodefence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Challenging the use of foreign agent laws - European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2012, the Russian Duma amended a number of laws related to the international funding and governance of civil society organisations (CSOs), legislative changes which collectively became known as the \u2018Foreign Agents Act\u2019. Progressive organisations in Russia had come to rely on funding from abroad. The \u2018Foreign Agents Act\u2019 sought to stigmatise CSOs and the people who worked for them. 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