What is the Public Verdict Foundation?

Public Verdict Foundation presentation

The Public Verdict Foundation was established in February 2004 as a non-profit, non-partisan organization offering legal assistance to victims of human rights abuse at the hands of law enforcement officers in Russia. The founders of Public Verdict include prominent Russian human rights groups and charitable organizations, such is the «Memorial» International Society for Human Rights, History and Education; the Moscow Helsinki Group; the Open Russia; the Democracy Foundation (the Alexander  N. Yakovlev Foundation); and the Russian Regions Foundation.

The Public Verdict Foundation works to promote a climate of intolerance to abusive law enforcement practices in the Russian society, and to ensure civilian oversight of the law enforcement.

The Foundation informs the wide public on the situation with human rights violations committed by the law enforcement.

Natalia Taubina, Director, the Public Verdict Foundation:
- We work to help people defend their rights, and we wish that the authorities as well as the public abide by the law, so that the term «arbitrariness» is rarely, if ever, used to characterize life in Russia

How does the Public Verdict Foundation operate?

• Transparency is the central principle we live by.
• The Public Verdict Foundation offers legal assistance and disseminates best practices to help individuals and groups restore their rights violated by law enforcement officers.
• The Foundation assists law enforcement authorities in preventing and suppressing violations of human rights and civil liberties.
• An important part of our mission is to promote the development of regional human rights groups and to support their work.
• The Foundation engages in educational and analytical work, and commissions relevant studies from reputable sociological institutions and think-tanks.
• The Foundation develops recommendations to improve law enforcement practices in Russia, and consults with government and NGOs regarding these recommendations. The Foundation engages in public and media campaigning.
• The Foundation promotes international standards of human rights and civil liberties in the Russian Federation, and advocates for effective domestic application of international human rights mechanisms.

The Foundation offers its assistance to all Russian citizens whose human rights and civil liberties have been violated by unlawful acts of the law enforcement authorities.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Chair, Moscow Helsinki Group:
- The fact that Public Verdict has joined Russia?s human rights community will make us stronger and improve our performance.

Yuri Levada, Director, Levada Center:
— Research projects that we have undertaken jointly with the Public Verdict Foundation contribute to our knowledge of the forms of abuse by the law enforcement authorities, and their common patterns of human rights violations. Now we can share this knowledge based on our surveys of the Russian public opinion.

Yuri Schmidt, Chair, Lawyers, Committee for Human Rights:
- Russian people need to be protected from unlawful actions by authorities — it is a constitutional right. The Public Verdict Foundation has expanded their access to this right.

Arseny Roginsky, Chair, «Memorial» International Society for Human Rights, History and Education:
- The Foundation is a unique structure. They are doing what we, human rights defenders, have always dreamed of doing, but never had the resources. The Foundation makes it possible to offer quality legal assistance to individual victims of human rights violation. Rather that focus on high-profile cases in Moscow, they take those little-known cases involving ordinary people and bring them into public focus.

The Public Verdict Foundation:

5/3 Pyzhevsky pereulok
Moscow 11907 Russia

tel/fax: +7-495-951-1201
E-mail: info@publicverdict.org
www.publicverdict.org