Russia censured by Human Rights Court for denying access to Soviet archives
The International Court of Human Rights (ICHR) has penalized Russia for obstructing access to records detailing rights abuses during the Soviet period, which were withheld from organizations like Memorial and others. The court asserted, "The pursuit of truthful history is essential to the freedom of speech." This denial of access was determined as an infringement on the right to information and thus breached the European Human Rights Convention.
Grievances were lodged between 2012 and 2022 by five Russian individuals and the dissolved Moscow-based and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Memorial. They aimed to uncover archives containing details on "ethnic massacres and deportations, orchestrated by non-judicial bodies during the 1930s and 1940s," as the court clarified.
Simultaneously, a citizen of Switzerland, Marie Dupuy, demanded access to records related to Soviet oppression. Dupuy was searching for information about Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish envoy who saved countless Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust by providing them with Swedish documents and using his funds to secure houses for Jewish shelter under Swedish protection.
"In all cases, the petitioners were either barred from obtaining the information, received inadequate information, or prohibited from replicating the original documents," the court stated. One individual was even convicted for gathering "family and personal secrets" of victims of ethnic violence in relation to research on the expulsion of ethnic Germans.
