HRC "Memorial" and Svetlana Gannushkina receive Sjur Lindebraekkes award

Norwegian Sjur Lindebraekkes Award for democracy and human rights has been given to the Russian Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairperson of the "Civil Assistance" Committee, whose activity is largely associated with the republics of Northern Caucasus.

The award ceremony was held on May 6 in Oslo. Human rights activists, whose activities in Northern Caucasus represent one of the main areas of their work, were nominated for the Sjur Lindebraekkes Award by Erna Solberg, Chairperson of the Conservative Party. Inge Lioning, ex-Rector of the University of Oslo, Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights of the Norwegian Parliament, delivered his speech at the meeting of the Party, during which the award was given. He spoke of work of the HRC "Memorial" and the "Civil Assistance" Committee and emphasized that the activity of human rights activists is difficult and requires courage.

In her response speech, Svetlana Gannushkina, the member of the Board of the HRC "Memorial", the head of the "Migration and Law" programme, Chairman of the "Civil Assistance" Committee, the member of the Council on Human Rights under President of the Russian Federation, has expressed her special gratitude to Norway for the fact that the small country accepts a lot of refugees and conducts great job on their integration.

The human rights activist also spoke of present ongoing migration processes in the world. "They confront us with new challenges, to which we should respond with the creation of new mechanisms for preservation and development of democracy and human rights concepts," the message of the HRC "Memorial", received by the "Caucasian Knot" edition office, quotes Svetlana Gannushkina as saying.