In April 1997, well-known Russian human rights defenders and public officials (Valery
Abramkin, Ludmila Alexeeva, Elena Bonner, Larisa Bogoraz, Sergey Kovalev, Valery
Borshchev, Anatoly Pristavkin, etc.) created an initiative group called Common Cause,
which also included representatives from active human rights organisations.
The address distributed by the initiative group on the occasion of the 50th
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights noted in particular:
"On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration,
we are sad to announce that the human rights situation in the Russian Federation is
drastically deteriorating.
“The people of our country are still living under conditions of disdain, cruelty, and
indifference to their human dignity. The Russian state is being built in the same way as
the Soviet state...
“The Common Cause Initiative Group intends to make public all instances of human
rights violation, political persecution, torture, and illegal arrests, and support
initiatives directed at legal enlightenment. We intend to protect people's rights to
dignified payment of their labour, legislation into harmony with the main provisions of
the Declaration, and promote judicial reforms.
“1998, the year of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration, is
the time for Russian society to take active steps towards guaranteeing human civil and
economic rights.
“Only genuine realisation of these rights can provide a reliable foundation on which
to build a law-based state and prevent a return to totalitarianism in Russia...”
In 1997, the Common Cause discussed several urgent issues at its meetings related to
violations of citizen's constitutional rights. The Common Cause and NGOs that belong to it
approved several documents drawn up by the MCPR within the
framework of the “Towards the Rule of Law” project, including on the course of
judicial reform, violations of prisoners rights, torture, the new draft of the Criminal
Procedure Code, and others.
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