The Civic Assistance Committee (Komitet Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie) is a Russian NGO which campaigns for human rights, particularly with regard to immigrants and refugees in Russian society.The Nobel Peace Prize: Who will win this year?

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

(6 October 2016)

History

Svetlana Gannushkina Svetlana Alekseevna Gannushkina (, born 6 March 1942) is a mathematician and human rights activist in Russia who was reported to have been a serious contender for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Gannushkina became well-known in Russia as a human r ...

cofounded the Civic Assistance Committee in 1990. The first refugees needing the Committee's help were some of the almost 40,000

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

who had fled from the Baku pogroms to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Gannushkina recalled that "No one wanted to deal with them and

Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Commu ...

could only say they would all go back at some point. But in the meantime, the refugees had nowhere to go." Later waves of post-Soviet

immigration to Russia Immigration to Russia involves foreign citizens (or people without any citizenship) seeking permanent residence in the territory of the Russian Federation. Historically, Russian empire was one of the World's leading destination for immigrants s ...

included refugees escaping

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of peo ...

and

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

in 1993-1994 after the

Georgian Civil War The Georgian Civil War ( ka, საქართველოს სამოქალაქო ომი, ''sakartvelos samokalako omi'') lasted from 1991 to 1993 in the South Caucasian country of Georgia. It began in December 1991 with the c ...

, Ukrainians arriving in 2014 after the Maidan Revolution, and Syrians fleeing the Syrian civil war. In 2015 2,276 people, amongst them 1,546 refugees, applied to the Civic Assistance Committee for assistance. After an ambiguous stipulation by the

Ministry of Education and Science Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

in January 2014, requiring proof of registration for foreign children in school, the Civic Assistance Committee succeeded in challenging 76 cases where schools had denied access to immigrant children. In April 2015, Russia's

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

added the Committee to the so-called list of "foreign agent".

References

External links

* 1990 establishments in Russia Organizations established in 1990 Non-profit organizations based in Russia Refugee aid organizations Human rights organizations based in Russia Non-profit organizations listed in Russia as foreign agents {{nongov-org-stub