"We continue to call on the Russian authorities to align their policies and legislation with the human rights obligations and commitments that they have undertaken, and to abandon the practice of branding Russian NGOs as "foreign agents," as well as all resulting administrative harassment," the statement read.
Earlier in the day, the Moscow court supported the decision by the Russian Justice Ministry to include the Memorial International Society in the "foreign agents" list. According to the ministry's press service, the audit revealed that the organization was being financed by foreign sources and participated in political activities.
The initial aim of the Memorial International Society was to preserve the societal memory of political prosecutions in the Soviet Union. Memorial also includes organizations from other post-soviet states such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Latvia.
In July 2012, a law was passed in Russia requiring NGOs that are engaged in political activities and receive funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents" and to label all their publications as such. The law came into force in November 2012.
