Foreign-Funded Nonprofits Reject “Foreign Agent” Label in Russia

We previously blogged about Russia’s enactments of legislation requiring nonprofit groups receiving funding from outside of Russia to identify themselves as foreign agents.  The concerns of nonprofits about this new law appear to have born fruit, as the NY Times reported last month that a number of prominent human rights organizations have decided to defy the new law even in the face of fines and other possible penalties.  While defended on the grounds of preserving Russia’s sovereignty, the law threatens to stigmatize some of the most active human rights organizations in Russia and so hinder their efforts to defend human rights in that country.  As I detailed in an article on NGO involvement in regional human rights courts, these groups play a critical role in bringing cases of alleged human rights violations in Russia to the European Court of Human Rights. 

LHM