New state award for human rights activists
Human rights activists and charities will receive the first state awards in 2016
Moscow 12 August 2015
President Vladimir Putin will soon sign a decree to set up an annual state award in Russia for human rights activists and charities. The monetary value of part of the award will be a little less than 6,000,000 roubles in 2016.
The decree to set up a state award for human rights activists and charities is awaiting Vladimir Putin’s signature, according to Kommersant. The task of working on establishing the annual state award in the sphere of human rights and charitable activities was given to the President in 2013 following a meeting with the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights.
In 2013, the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights presented their proposal to the Government and in 2014 the draft decree to set up the award passed the public discussion phase.
The award should have been given in 2015 but the process was delayed due to a search for funding and the approval of documents, according to a publication from the presidential administration. It is assumed that the cash part of the award will amount to a little less than 6,000,000 roubles. The Chairman of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, Mikhail Fedotov is sure that the creation of the award will help to increase the prestige of human rights activities and remove society’s suspicion in relation to human rights activists.
According to the leader of the association ‘Agora’, Pavel Chikov, the state award will only be given to those whom the authorities themselves consider to be “human rights activists”. However, he did not rule out the possibility that the award will also be given to someone from the “elders” of the human rights movement, such as the Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki group Lyudmila Alexeyeva.
Author: Grigory Ivanushkin
