Event details

Oct
31

Under Attack: How Russian civil society continues to document and report human rights violations"?

Panel Discussion

Violetta Fitsner, head of advocacy at OVD-Info (and board member of Memorial): Violetta Fitsner is a human rights lawyer and an advocacy officer at OVD-Info, a Russian human rights project. She prepares reports and other submissions on the human rights situation in Russia to the UN mechanisms, the Council of Europe and other institutions. Fitsner also specialises in strategic litigation and submits individual complaints to the UN Treaty Bodies and the WGAD, including in relation to cases of political persecution in Russia. She is also involved in strategic litigation at the national level.

OVD-Info is an independent human rights defence and media group. They focus on the rights to freedom of assembly and association and freedom of expression but their work extends further. They work on the ground in Russia and globally aiming at putting an end to political persecution in Russia. OVD-Info operates a 24-hour federal hotline to collect information on all types of political persecution and coordinate legal assistance to its victims, provides legal education to activists and researches different types of political persecution in Russia.

OVD-Info was awarded as Civil Rights Defender of the Year in September 2021.

Kirill Koroteev, head of International Practice at Agora Human Rights Centre: Kirill Koroteev has been the Head of International Practice at Agora since April 2019. Prior to his move to Agora he was the legal director at the Human Rights Centre “Memorial”. Since 2002 he has represented numerous applicants before the European Court of Human Rights in cases brought mainly against Russia and also Georgia and Ukraine. Koroteev acted as a human rights expert for Penal Reform International, Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commission, Institute for Law and Public Policy (Moscow), and as a chargé de mission for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH, Paris).

Agora is an association of more than 100 lawyers and other legal professionals working on landmark human rights cases domestically and internationally. Agora has permanent legal teams working across Russia. Agora currently represents applicants in several hundred applications brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the UN Treaty Bodies. They also provide support to political immigrants, persons who have been forced to leave Russia due to persecution by the authorities and asylum seekers. Agora is also active across post-Soviet States where the negative impact of Russian authorities on the human rights situation is strongly felt.

Date

October 31, 2024

Time

4:00 p.m.

Location

Louis A. Simpson International Building, 144

Audience