At a press-conference after the meeting, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists: - I want to say that we are open to dialogue on human rights with any partner. We believe that in this area there can be no closed themes.
Støre told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that he expressed a general worry for the civil society in Russia.
- Persons from Amnesty International and the Helsinki Committee are denied entry to Russia and I had a tidy conversation with Lavrov about this, Støre said.
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BarentsObserver reported last autumn that the Norwegian Helsinki Committee wanted to open an office in Murmansk with local employees.
- I am sorry to say, but we have closed our office in Murmansk because Russian authorities have refused registration of the office, Director of Human Rights Education Enver Djuliman at the Oslo office of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee told BarentsObserver.
Representatives from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee have later been refused entry-visa to Russia.
According to the transcript from Lavrov’s press-conferance after the meeting with Støre last week, Russian authorities will now look into the case again.
- It was in this concrete, business-like and keen spirit that Jonas Gahr Støre and I today also discussed the issues which he has now mentioned, in particular, the problems that appeared for the representatives of a number of Norwegian non-governmental organizations with their visit to Russia. Preliminarily we dealt with these matters, Lavrov said and contined:
- It was found that at least some of these representatives of the Norwegian NGOs visited Russia indicating their purpose of visit as tourism. In fact, they were engaged in holding public events. It is unclear why it was impossible to specify this when applying for visas. Then, at least, there would have been no difficulties. I’ve promised my Norwegian colleague that we shall additionally sort this matter out and give a concrete answer.
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The first Helsinki Committee was established in Moscow in 1976. The primary concern of the “Moscow Helsinki Group” was to monitor and report on the Soviet Union’s implementation of the Helsinki Declaration. The “Helsinki Declaration” was one of the first international agreements that linked issues concerning peace and security with respect for human rights.
