Linked with the All-Russian Civil Congress.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: “My dream is to see the equal partnership of the state power and civil society in Russia”.
Lyudmila Alekseeva (born 1927) worked as a researcher at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. As early as the 1950s, she participated in dissident activities. She helped the cause of political prisoners in the 1960s. In 1976, she became part of the human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG). As a result of her activities, she was forced to emigrate to the US in 1977. In 1993, she returned to Russia where, as the head of the MHG, she helps to provide legal and human rights aid to citizens through a network of ‘legal clinics.’ (Read all on 1000peacewomen).
Lyudmila Alekseeva – Russian Federation
She works for the Moskovskaya Helsinskaya gruppa MHG, and for the Vsierossiysky grazhdansky kongress All-Russian Civil Congress.
Lyudmila Alekseeva is a historian and human rights activist. She graduated from the History Faculty of Moscow State University in 1950. Alekseeva was present at the birth of the human rights movement in Russia in the mid-1960s and helped found the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976.
For her activities, she was frequently persecuted and warned by Soviet authorities and had to emigrate to the U.S. in 1977. Since then, Alekseeva has been a foreign representative of the Moscow Helsinki Group. She has also hosted Radio Liberty and Voice of America programs on human rights and been a consultant to a number of human rights organizations. Since 1996, she has led the Moscow Helsinki Group, and since 1998 she has served as president of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. In 2002, Alekseeva was appointed to serve on Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Commission. Lyudmila Alekseeva participates in the panel « Human Rights Today – Liberty In The Making. » (Read on 50 years on Liberty).
For the prevention of torture it is necessary to have public control. The only chance to create a system that will lower corruption and other abuses of power, is the opportunity to create a legal defense structure that is open. Right now there are needs to have a dialog between human rights workers and legal defense workers so that everyone can sit together and listen to each another in order to extend contacts, either through round table discussions, seminars, or conferences. Law enforcement officers believe that they shouldn’t be controlled by anyone outside the governmental system. In 1997 the group «Common Cause» took an initiative to the president to remove the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kulikov, from office. Many believe that removing one person from his position will not change anything. But there is a possibility of a domino effect: if Kulikov leaves, all of those he has been shielding will leave as well. During the period of the US occupation of Japan, the entire staff of the public defender’s office was changed three times as corruption was uncovered. (From remarks by Lyudmila Alekseeva, Chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group, see on prison.org).
RUSSIA, MOSCOW. On December 20 during a roundtable discussion, Russian Ombudsman for Human Rights Oleg Mironov and leaders of human rights organizations planned a program of joint activities. Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva, chairman of the Foundation to Defend Glasnost Aleksei Simonov, head of the Center for International Defense Karina Moskalenko, deputy director of the Institute for Human Rights Valentin Gefter and others took part in the event. The discussants decided to cooperate in such ways as joint participation in parliamentary hearings, joint work with the public and joint preparation of analytical material.Mironov stated that the Ombudsman’s office and non-governmental organizations could supplement each others functions. Human rights activists have better abilities to collect information and the Ombudsman more influence on state agencies. (Read on PrimaNews).
links:
Civil.ge, UNA-Georgia online magazine;