Glastnost Foundation

For the past few years the Russian NGO has come under increasing pressure from the state. The Ministry of Justice, for example, has turned the formal procedures of registering or re-registering the NGOs into a barrier for unwanted organizations. There is sufficient evidence of illegal requirements being brought in regard to the NGO with the aim of refusing their registration and thus significantly limiting their capacity and their rights. This, first of all, applies to the human rights NGOs, such as the "Glasnost" Public Foundation, "Memorial", the Fund for the protection of Glasnost, the Soldiers' Mothers Movement, and others. The same arbitrary approach is practiced by the justice departments when registering or re-registering organizations tackling social, ecological, cultural and other problems and thus engaged in public control over the work of the state bodies. One famous Moscow-based NGO, the Peoples' Land Use Association, is a case in point. By helping Muscovites acquire allotments in the Moscow suburbs, the NGO provoked the wrath of the bureaucrats.

Beside purely political motives, the officials in charge of registration are openly extorting money. According to a number of NGOs which tried to register with the Moscow City Justice Department, not a single organization has any possibility of getting registered unless it pays several hundred dollars "for legal services". Last year the most active of those NGOs which suffered the abuses of the Moscow City Justice Department formed an Organizing Committee which will convene a Round Table of the NGOs in an effort to consolidate their efforts in overcoming the bureaucratic hurdles. At present, the organizing committee is taking steps under the auspices of the "Glasnost" Foundation to deal with this problem at the state and international level. As a result, the Justice Ministry was forced to soften its positions by amending some of its unconstitutional regulations concerning the implementation of the law "On public organizations". "Glasnost" Foundation also urges all interested NGOs to take part in the Round Table on the problems of NGOs. Our address: Tsvetnoi boulevard, House 22, Bldg. 5, Apt.40. Tel:208-2853, 208-3425. Fax:299-8538. E-mail: fondglas@online.ru

Tagansky district court on Sept. 17 decided to liquidate the Moscow office of the "Salvation Army", reports Blagovest-Info Agency.

The procedure of liquidation was initiated by the Moscow Dept of Justice Ministry, which denied its re-registration in 1999. The motive for denial was that the organization is of a military character. Afetr the court's decision the organization's advocates applied to the Moscow City Court and to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, citing the violation of the law "On the freedom of conscience and religion", reports NTV.Ru.

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