News

Judicial harassment against LGBT+ in Russia under the “propaganda” law

The ban on so-called "LGBT+ propaganda" in Russia has caused much controversy both within the country and abroad. However, there's a difference between the noise surrounding repressive legislation and its actual implementation. Citizens’ Watch, in collaboration with the Sphere Foundation, has prepared a report based on research of court practice on consideration of cases on bringing to administrative responsibility for "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among adults and children. We have studied  64 court decisions that came into force between December 2022 and March 2024.

300000 Ruble Fine for Applying to the Ministry of Justice

Today, the St. Petersburg City Court upheld the decision of the Kuibyshevsky District Court to impose a fine of 300000 rubles on the human rights organization "Citizens’ Watch" for not labeling requests to the Ministry of Justice with “foreign agent '' mark. Last summer, the chair of Citizens’ Watch, Elena Shakhova, requested information from the Ministry of Justice about the procedure for maintaining the register of affiliated persons and data on the existence and number of persons affiliated with the organization. We were denied this information, and Roskomnadzor drew up a protocol on an administrative offense against our human rights NGO.

Statement by Human Rights Groups on the Unjust Verdict and Sentence in Politically Motivated Case Against Russian Human Rights Defender Oleg Orlov 

We, 32 human rights organizations, condemn Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court’s sentencing yesterday of Oleg Orlov, co-chair of Human Rights Defense Center Memorial, to 2 years and 6 months in prison on politically motivated charges of “repeatedly discrediting” Russia’s armed forces.  Orlov, 70, is a veteran human rights defender who has devoted his life to exposing rights abuses and seeking justice for victims. His “crime” was to protest the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine and the escalating political repression inside Russia. Orlov’s trial was a mockery of justice and an attack on the fundamental right to free expression.

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Prevention of torture: practices, standards and regulations in Russia, Nordic and Baltic countries

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Our mission

Citizens Watch sees its strategic priority in bringing the Russian legislation related to human rights and the practice of its application closer to international legal standards.

Citizens Watch is a human rights NGO initiated in 1992 by a group of Russian human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and deputies to the Russian Parliament and to the St. Petersburg City Council. The goals were to assist in establishing parliamentary and civic control over police, security service, and armed forces, and to help prevent violations of constitutional rights by these governmental agencies.

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Our team

Elena Shakhova

Chair

Olga Startseva

Lawyer

Daniil Schmidt

Legal Assistant

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court hearings were visited by observers from our project courtmonitoring.org
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consultations provided on issues of human rights violations in 2022
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We will be happy with a small but monthly help, this gives us confidence in the future and the ability to plan our activities.
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Public offer for charitable donations

Санкт-Петербургская общественная правозащитная организация “Гражданский контроль” (Председатель Правления: Шахова Елена Владимировна), 
Invites donation on the following terms and conditions: 

1. General Provisions
1.1. In accordance with paragraph 2 of Art. 437 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, this proposal is a public offer (hereinafter referred to as the Offer). 
1.2. This Offer uses terms that have the following meaning: 
“Donation” — “donation of a thing or right for generally useful purposes”; 
“Donor” — “citizens, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs making donations”; 
“Donation Recipient” — “Санкт-Петербургская общественная правозащитная организация “Гражданский контроль””. 

1.3. The offer is valid indefinitely from the moment it is posted on the site of the Donation Recipient. 
1.4. The Donation Recipient has the right to cancel the Offer at any time by deleting it from the page of his website on the Internet. 
1.5 Changes may be made to the Offer, which come into force from the day following the day of posting the Offer in a new version on the site of the Donation Recipient. 
1.6. The invalidity of one or several conditions of the Offer does not entail the invalidity of all other conditions of the Offer. 

2. Essential terms of the donation agreement: 
2.1. The donor donates money (donation) to the Donation Recipient for public benefit goals in accordance with Art. 582 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. 
2.2 Donation is used to maintain and conduct the Donation Recipient’s statutory activities. 
2.3. The donation amount is determined by the Donor. 

3. Procedure for concluding a donation agreement: 
3.1. In accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 434 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a donation agreement is concluded in writing by acceptance of the Offer by the Donor. 
3.2. The Offer can be accepted by the Donor by transferring money in favor of the Donation Recipient by a payment order according to the details specified in section 5 of the Offer, indicating in the line “purpose of payment”: “donation for the maintenance and conduct of statutory activities”, as well as using plastic cards, electronic payment systems and other means and systems that allow the Donor to transfer money donations to the Donation Recipient. 
3.3. The performance by the Donor of any of the acts referred to in paragraph 3.2. Offers shall be deemed to be an acceptance of the Offer pursuant to s. 3. 438 Civil Code of the Russian Federation. 
3.4. The date of acceptance of the Offer — the date of the conclusion of the donation agreement — is the date of receipt of the donation in the form of money from the Donor to the current account of the Donation Recipient. 

4. Final provisions: 
4.1. By performing the actions provided for by this Offer, the Donor confirms that he is familiar with the terms of the Offer, the goals of the Donation Recipient, realizes the significance of his actions and has the full right to perform them, fully and unconditionally accepts the terms of this Offer. 
4.2. This Offer is regulated and interpreted in accordance with current Russian legislation. 

5. Signature and details of the recipient of the donation 

Санкт-Петербургская общественная правозащитная организация “Гражданский контроль” 

OGRN: 1027800003758
INN / KPP: 7825059110 / 784001001 
Location address: 191040, Лиговский пр., д. 87, офис 300 

Bank details:
Bank account number: 40703810939040000072 
Bank: ПАО банк ВТБ в г. Санкт-Петербурге 
Bank BIK: 044030704 
Bank correspondent account number: 30101810200000000704 

Председатель Правления 
Шахова Елена Владимировна

Оn 30.12.2014 Citizens’ Watch was registered as a foreign agent by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation

I agree with Terms of the donation service 

Personal data processing policy
1. General Provisions

This personal data processing policy is compiled in accordance with the requirements of Federal Law of 27.07.2006 No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data” and defines the procedure for processing personal data and measures to ensure the security of personal data taken by the Saint Petersburg Public Human Rights Organization “Civil Control,” OGRN 1027800003758, located at: Saint Petersburg, Ligovsky Prospekt 87, office 300 (hereinafter referred to as the Operator).

1.1. The Operator sets compliance with the rights and freedoms of the individual as the most important goal and condition for carrying out its activities, including the protection of the right to privacy, personal and family secrets.

1.2. This Operator’s policy on personal data processing (hereinafter — the Policy) applies to all information that the Operator may obtain about visitors to the website https://citwatch.org.

2. The Operator may process the following User’s personal data:

2.1. Surname, name, patronymic;

2.2. Email address;

2.3. Phone numbers;

2.4. The website also collects and processes anonymized data about visitors (including “cookie” files, the visitor’s IP address, and browser user-agent data) using internet statistics services (Yandex Metrica and Google Analytics, and others).

2.5. The above-mentioned data, hereinafter in the text, are collectively referred to as Personal data.

3. Purposes of processing personal data:

3.1. The purpose of processing the User’s personal data is to provide informational, legal, and other support to the user in accordance with the statutory goals and tasks of the St. Petersburg Public Organization “Civil Control.”

3.2. The Operator also has the right to send notifications to the User about new products and services, special offers, and various events. The User can always refuse to receive informational messages by sending a letter to the Operator’s email address info@citwatch.org with the note “Refusal of notifications from the website of the St. Petersburg Public Organization ‘Civil Control.’ ”

3.3. Anonymized User data collected through internet statistics services is used to gather information about User actions on the website, improve the quality of the site, and its content.

4. Legal grounds for processing personal data:

4.1. The Operator processes the User’s personal data only if they are filled in and/or submitted by the User independently through special forms on the website https://citwatch.org. By filling out the relevant forms and/or submitting their personal data to the Operator, the User expresses their consent to this Policy.

4.2. The Operator processes anonymized User data if it is allowed in the User’s browser settings (enabled “cookie” file storage and the use of JavaScript technology).

5. Procedure for collecting, storing, transferring, and other types of processing of personal data:

The security of personal data processed by the Operator is ensured by implementing legal, organizational, and technical measures necessary to fully comply with the requirements of current legislation in the field of personal data protection.

5.1. The Operator ensures the safety of personal data and takes all possible measures to prevent unauthorized access to personal data.

5.2. The User’s personal data will never, under any circumstances, be transferred to third parties, except in cases related to the execution of current legislation.

5.3. In case of inaccuracies in personal data, the User can update them independently by sending a notification to the Operator’s email address info@citwatch.org with the note “Update of personal data.”

5.4. The processing period for personal data is unlimited. The User can revoke their consent to the processing of personal data at any time by sending a notification to the Operator via email to the Operator’s email address info@citwatch.org with the note “Withdrawal of consent to the processing of personal data.”

6. Cross-border transfer of personal data:

6.1. Before starting the cross-border transfer of personal data, the Operator must ensure that the foreign state to which the transfer of personal data is supposed to be carried out provides reliable protection of the rights of personal data subjects.

6.2. Cross-border transfer of personal data to the territories of foreign states that do not meet the above requirements can only be carried out with the written consent of the personal data subject for the cross-border transfer of their personal data and/or the execution of a contract with the personal data subject.

7. Changes to the Privacy Policy:

The St. Petersburg Public Organization “Civil Control” has the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy. When making changes, the date of the last update is indicated in the current version. The new version of the Policy comes into effect from the moment of its placement unless otherwise provided by the new version of the Policy.

8. Final Provisions:

8.1. The User can receive any clarifications on issues of interest regarding the processing of their personal data by contacting the Operator via email info@citwatch.org.

8.2. Any changes to the personal data processing policy by the Operator will be reflected in this document. The Policy is valid indefinitely until replaced by a new version.

8.3. The current version of the Policy is freely available on the Internet at https://www.citwatch.org/privacy-policy-eng.

and with the processing of my personal data 
Awaiting for the safe payment page redirection…

Our partners

Public Verdict

Human Rights Council of Saint Petersburg

The Crew Against Torture

Russian LGBT Network

Moscow Helsinki Group

Soldiers’ mothers of Saint Petersburg

Сenter for independent sociological research

Bridge It

Man and Law

Open Space

Don Women

Viasna

SOVA Research Center

Regional Press Institute

Court Reporters Guild

Legal Information Agency

Citizens' Watch in social media
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