The Moscow Research Center for Human Rights (MRCHR) is an umbrella group for human rights groups. It was set up in 1993. The Center unites about a dozen human rights nongovernmental organizations.

The idea for the MRCHR grew out of a desire to collectively organize the human rights-related movements emerging from the loosely-structured community of informal social organizations which flowered during the last part of the Soviet period. A group of human rights activists, dissidents and former political prisoners acquired office space in which to work. The group soon found financial and moral support from the West, including the
National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is an organization in the United States that was founded in 1983 for promoting democracy in other countries by promoting political and economic institutions such as political groups, trade unions, ...
, Phare, and various private foundations. After receiving a series of small grants, the Center gradually emerged as a focal point for human rights work in 199

Funding

The America's Development Foundation set up "An institutional partnership program in Russia with the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights (MCHR) provided the framework for strengthening the capacity of this coalition of Russian human rights NGOs, and significantly extending its network.

"From 1993 – 1997, ADF carried out significant work with the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights (MRCHR), an umbrella organization of fifteen human rights organizations established in 1991 to jointly promote human rights and improve the rule of law throughout the Russian Federation. With generous backing from several private foundations and the Institutional Partnership Program of the

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

Bureau for Europe and the New Independent States, ADF helped MRCHR reach beyond Moscow to become a nationwide organization, with positive results for the cause of increasing human rights awareness and protection in Russia.

Director of the Center is Alexey Smirnov (dissident), Alexey Smirnov, and its chairmen is

Boris Altshuler Boris Leonidovich Altshuler (russian: Бори́с Леонидович Альтшу́лер, born 27 January 1955, Saint Petersburg, Leningrad, Soviet Union, USSR) is a professor of theoretical physics at Columbia University. His specialty is the ...

br>
Advisory Board of the Center includes

Vyacheslav Bakhmin Vyacheslav, also transliterated Viacheslav or Viatcheslav (russian: Вячеслав, Vjačeslav ; uk, В'ячеслав, V"jačeslav ), is a Russian and Ukrainian masculine given name. It is the equivalent of Belarusian Вячаслаў/Вацл� ...

Elena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...

Valeriy Borschov The French name Valery () is a male given name or surname of Germanic origin ''Walaric'' (see Walric of Leuconay), that has often been confused in modern times with the Latin name ''Valerius''—that explains the variant spelling Valéry (). The S ...

Sergei Kovalev Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; russian: link=no, Сергей Адамович Ковалёв; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a diss ...

and

Anatoly Pristavkin Anatoly Ignatovich Pristavkin (russian: Анато́лий Игна́тьевич Приста́вкин, 17 October 1931, Lyubertsy — 11 July 2008, Moscow) was a Russian writer and public figure. His mother died when he was nine and his father ...

br>

References

{{reflist Organizations established in 1993 1993 establishments in Russia Organizations based in Moscow Human rights organizations based in Russia