Human rights defender Lyudmila Alekseeva dies

On December 8, Lyudmila Alekseeva, a Russian human rights defender, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), passed away in her 92nd year of age. She often visited Northern Caucasus and criticized the situation with human rights in the region.

"She died in the intensive care ward; she was in grave condition. We, relatives and comrades, were hoping to the last that she would crawl out," Valery Borschov, a MHG member, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Human Rights Council (HRC), recently, Lyudmila Alekseeva found it difficult to cope with the disease. "But her spirit, as always, was much stronger than her body and much stronger than any diseases. Just yesterday and the day before yesterday, she gave instructions to her assistant, Lena Blinova; and these instructions were about helping other people. She remained a human rights defender until her last moments; she really 'laid her life for her friends.' To say that we will miss her is to say nothing. This is a terrible loss for the entire Russian human rights movement," Mr Fedotov has stated in his message posted on the HRC's website.

Human rights defenders of the MHG took part in campaigns related to Northern Caucasus, in particular, dedicated to the problems of disappearances, and the protection of prisoners' rights. On August 24, 2012, Ms Alekseeva was awarded, at the interregional forum of human rights defenders of Northern Caucasus in Vladikavkaz, the Natalia Estemirova Prize "Person of Honour and Conscience".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 8, 2018 at 10:37 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.