Human rights center seeks registration

The Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center has been litigating against the Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Kabardino-Balkaria for several months already. The fact of the matter is that the department denied registration to the center on the ground that some documents submitted by the center were not originals, as it was required by the law, but copies. The human rights activists claim they submitted the originals and the substitution happened in the department. The center gained a court victory, but the department of justice appealed against the court decision in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. The Supreme Court annulled the decision and sent the case for retrial. The court of first instance reviewed the case and denied the human rights activists' suit. They prepared new documents and addressed the department of justice again on June 17. But department officials refused to take the documents giving no reasons for their refusal. Deputy head of the department Andrey Tupikin quite obscurely explained the department's position to the Caucasian Knot correspondent via phone. He said, "The trial is going. Well, they may send the documents by post."

"There is no civil society in the republic. And the authorities by means of their satellites make everything not to allow it," said director of the Human Rights Center Valery Khatazhukov. He and the center's staff are not going to give up.

Editors note: See also the article "Republican Supreme Court refuses to register Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center".