Moscow Helsinki Group
The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, Russian: Московская Хельсинкская группа, romanized: Moskovskaya Khel'sinkskaya gruppa) was one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 to monitor Soviet compliance with the Helsinki Accords and to report to the West on Soviet human rights abuses.: 414 It had been forced out of existence in the early 1980s, but was revived in 1989 and continued to operate in Russia.
Московская Хельсинкская группа | |
| Formation | 12 May 1976 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Yuri Orlov and others |
| Dissolved | 25 January 2023 |
| Type | Non-profit, NGO |
| Legal status | Defunct |
| Purpose | Monitoring and protection of human rights |
| Headquarters | 22/1 Bolshoy Golovin Lane, Moscow, Russia |
Chair (1976–1982) | Yuri Orlov |
Chair (1989–1994) | Larisa Bogoraz |
Chair (1994–1996) | Kronid Lyubarsky |
Chair (1996–2018) | Lyudmila Alexeyeva (from 2019 three co-chairs) |
Parent organization | Helsinki Committee for Human Rights |
| Subsidiaries | Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes |
| Website | www |
In the 1970s, Moscow Helsinki Group inspired the formation of similar groups in other Warsaw Pact countries and support groups in the West. Within the former Soviet Union Helsinki Watch Groups were founded in Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Armenia, as well as in the United States (Helsinki Watch, later Human Rights Watch). Similar initiatives sprung up in countries such as Czechoslovakia, with Charter 77. Eventually, the Helsinki monitoring groups inspired by the Moscow Helsinki Group formed the International Helsinki Federation.
In late December 2022 the Russian Ministry of Justice filed a court order to dissolve the organization. On 25 January 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Moscow City Court ruled that the Moscow Helsinki Group must be dissolved citing group's activities outside of its region, Moscow.