Agora has been a cooperation partner of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee for several years. –Agora fights against their own authoritarian regime, defending the Russian rule of law, but they also fight for the democratic values that Europe is built on. It is a joint fight that we should not let them fight alone, said Russia advisor Inna Sangadzhieva at the press conference announcing the Rafto Prize 2014 today.
Since 2005, Agora’s team of professional lawyers have provided legal aid to victims of the regime – regular citizens, but also those that other lawyers are afraid to help; journalists, human rights activists and others who express discontent with the situation. Amongst others, they defended the NHC’s Sakharov Freedom Award laureate Golos during their court proceedings in Moscow in 2012.
In their activities, Agora cooperates with willing representatives of the authorities in the regional districts of Russia, and Mr. Chikov is a member of Putin’s human rights council. Agora’s reports on the conditions in closed institutions, on the situation for vulnerable groups like LGBTI people, on the working conditions for lawyers or on the consequences of the foreign agents law are exemplary. – Russian civil society has never been stronger than it is today. This is also why they are under such hard pressure, says Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. Agora and other human rights organizations in Russia need our support. Awarding the 2014 Rafto Prize to Agora is a timely and good decision in this regard, he concludes.
The Rafto Foundation has since 1987 awarded, annually, the Rafto Prize for Human Rights to advocates of human rights and democracy. The prize commemorates Thorolf Rafto, professor of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen. Professor Rafto devoted his life to promoting democracy and respect for human rights, especially in Eastern Europe.
Agora has to refrain from receiving the 20 000 USD that come with the Prize due to the Foreign Agents Law.
Read Inna Sangadzhieva’s speech at the press conference here (in Norwegian).