Svetlana Gannushkina and the International Memorial Society
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Nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize: Human rights
defender Svetlana Gannushkina and the International
Memorial Society
Nominees for Nobel Peace Prize
http://www.rightsinrussia.info/home/hro-org-in-english-1/
human-rights-defenders
The well-known Russian human rights defender Svetlana
Gannushkina and the International Memorial Society have
been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
The BBC reports that Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of
the governing board of the International Memorial Society
and director of the Civic Assistance Committee, has been
nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize by
Erna Solberg, leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party
and a former Minister of Local Government and Regional
Development in Norway.
In an interview with the BaltInfo news agency, Svetlana
Gannushkina said:
"Partly I feel embarrassed, partly I feel hope that the world
community will at last recognize the problems that exist in
Russia with regard to the rule of law. I see this nomination
as a response to the situation that exists in our country
when the ordinary person is at the mercy of the arbitrary
actions of those in authority and of criminal gangs."
Svetlana Gannushkina stressed that her work cannot be
viewed separately from the work of Memorial as a whole.
Svetlana Gannushkina is chair of the Civic Assistance
Committee, director of the Migration and Law Network
within the Memorial Human Rights Centre, a member of
the governing board of the International Memorial Society,
and also a member of Russia's Presidential Council on
Human Rights and Civil Society.
Since the late 1980s Svetlana Gannushkina has devoted
herself with great energy and effectiveness to the problems
facing refugees and internally displaced people in Russia.
This work has made her well-known in Russia, in
the countries of the former Soviet Union, in Europe and
in the United States.