On 7 March 2015 a picket organized by Nizhny Novgorod civil movement and the Association of Victims of Torture in support of the Committee Against Torture took place at the Teatral’naya Square in Nizhny Novgorod. As we have previously reported, the state represented by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice included our organization in the list of the NGOs performing the functions of foreign agents, which may force us to close down.
Among other things, the participants of the picket collected signatures of Nizhny Novgorod citizens under the petition to the Minister of Justice and the General Prosecutor demanding to reconsider a decision on including INGO «The Committee Against Torture» in the list of organizations performing the function of foreign agents, since this label is going to humiliate the human rights organization and will prevent it from doing its work.
As we have previously reported, 40 Forty people who in different time suffered from crimes committed by law-enforcement agents and received support from the human rights defenders of the Committee Against Torture, signed the petition in support of this organization, which was submitted on 5 of March to the State Duma deputies from the regions where the human rights defenders work, to the Minister of Justice, and to the Prosecutor General.