British Helsinki Human Rights Group
Encyclopedia
The British Helsinki Human Rights Group is an Oxford
-based non-governmental organization
which monitors human rights in the 56 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE). Despite its name, the organisation is not affiliated to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
. BHHRG has been critical of what it characterizes as Western interference in imposing democracy, and has supported the right of political independence from the west of a number of Communist and post-Communist regimes, as well as of a number of African dictators.
The group also uses the name OSCEwatch, indicating that it sees part of its mission as scrutinising the activities of the OSCE. The OSCEwatch and BHHRG websites are identical, and both websites openly refer to each other.
, who has on occasion taken part in BHHRG activities, and was co-founded by his wife Christine Stone and fellow Oxford historian Mark Almond
(who is also its chairman). Its trustees comprise Mark Almond, Anthony Daniels
(who writes for the Daily Telegraph under the pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple), John Laughland
, Christine Stone and Mary Walsh. Almond, Daniels, Laughland and Stone are members of Britain's conservative intelligentsia and are regular contributors to British newspapers. Chad Nagle, an American lawyer who frequently contributes to the libertarian
isolationist antiwar.com
website, is also associated with the group. Noel Malcolm
, a historian of early modern Britain and Europe who in the 1990s and early 2000s wrote a couple of mass market books on some aspects of Balkan history, appeared on a 1994 list of founders and spoke on its behalf as recently as 1999 but has apparently since left the group.
The BHHRG is not an "official" Helsinki Committee, as it is not affiliated with the Helsinki Committees' umbrella organisation, the International Helsinki Federation
(IHF). The United Kingdom
's representative in the IHF is the British Helsinki Subcommittee of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, established in 1976. This led to the BHHRG being mistakenly labelled the British Helsinki Committee, which prompted the British Helsinki Subcommittee to ask visitors to its website to
For its part, the BHHRG website says nothing on the subject.
The membership, management and funding of the BHHRG are somewhat obscure.
These aspects do not appear to be discussed at all on its website, and the details of its trustees are given only in its legally required returns to the UK's Charity Commission. Its published accounts state that it received £417,332 in income between 1997–2003 and spent £449,086 in the same period. The organisation appears to have fallen on hard times recently, with its funding falling by nearly 99% after 2001. A possible reason is suggested by The Economist
, which reports that
The identity of its backers is also unclear. Still with them in 1999, Noel Malcolm
explained that the group does not disclose its donors
Only a few contributors are known by name. Material that the BHHRG issued in 1992 cited the Tory peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
as donors. The BHHRG's "About Us" page states that it "does not receive funding from any government" but, according to a Foreign Office source, it did receive money from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
for an election observer mission in 1995.
The source said funding was cut off because they found the group prejudiced, and partial and unreliable.
It has received no funding from this source since then and its advocates now say this proves the group is independent of governments.
The BHHRG publishes reports from first-hand observers, concentrating particularly on election monitoring in central and eastern Europe, as well as publishing frequent unsigned commentaries (just like the Economist does) about ongoing events in the region. A common theme in many of its publications has been a critical view of Western "meddling in the internal affairs" of central and east European countries, notably the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Belarus
.
Among its achievements the BHHRG's website claims:
, a self-avowed conspiracy theorist and passionate advocate of "national sovereignty") has enabled it to propagate its views through a number of major newspapers in Britain and the US. Yet it did not really become famous until publicly denouncing what were widely perceived as democratic movements against authoritarian former Communist rulers.
Among actions critics of the BHHRG find ill-advised:
Other statements by the BHHRG include:
John Laughland
(who said that reports of mass graves in Iraq were exaggerated for political purposes) characterised some supporters of Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko
as "neo-Nazis" and many of those backing him on the streets as "druggy skinheads from Lvov" whereas principal elements of the Jewish community supported Yushchenko.
These last claims prompted the publication of well-documented articles "exposing" the BHHRG's exploits.
The British weekly The Economist
published "Yanukovich's friends: A human-rights group that defends dictators". (Without a byline about who wrote the story).
The daily Guardian
published "PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes", written by David Aaronovitch
, to which John Laughland
, the subject of the article, objected, saying that it was "almost identical to" an article on a web site carrying "virulently antisemitic articles about the Jewish proclivity for rape, and about how the gas chambers at Auschwitz could not have existed". The controversy attracted many comments on the internet. The BHHRG's advocates reply by quoting Aleksandr Tsinker, "Head of the Observer Mission from the Institute for East European and CIS Nations" — an organization publicly known for nothing else — as saying that the Ukrainian election "was a free expression of the voters' will".
Some of the BHHRG's statements have been favorably quoted by the isolationist right in the US, by opponents of US foreign policy, as well as governments regarded by Western authorities as authoritarian and criminal, such as that of Belarus.
Its critics have accused the BHHRG of taking a predetermined ideological line while observing elections.
A British Foreign Office official quoted by Jeremy Druker said of them:
The BHHRG is almost always more critical of social-democratic than nationalist rulers.
The Economist
characterises the BHHRG's opinion as "an intense dislike of liberal internationalism." Tom Palmer of the libertarian
Cato Institute
summarizes their position as being that
The BHHRG's commentaries indeed allege that Western governments and international organisations are seeking to implement a "New World Order" in central and eastern Europe. Its supporters claim that the organisation exposes matters which Western governments and biased international organisations such as the UN and the OSCE had rather remained unknown.
For instance, it claims it denounced human rights abuses committed in Georgia
while these were ignored by the OSCE and the Council of Europe. Mark Almond, who has written on Balkan matters, has criticised the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia on behalf of Albanian separatists in Kosovo
as a "violation of international law" which resulted in "cultural genocide" against Serbs.
As self-proclaimed monitors of Human Rights in the countries concerned, they accuse other, intergovernmental organisations of being undemocratic, unelected, unaccountable, non-transparent meddlers in their internal affairs.
The OSCE has criticized the BHHRG for letting its journalists pose as impartial election monitors while publishing partisan polemics in newspapers, and for relying on short-term observer missions with a handful of people, an approach the OSCE abandoned as open to manipulation in 1996.
(The OSCE now uses large-scale long-term missions of four to six weeks with dozens of experts and hundreds of observers.)
The BHHRG dismisses the OSCE's position as an attempt to stifle legitimate criticism and independent reporting.
, but has been quite at odds with other organizations with similar names, at least since 1996.
The International Helsinki Federation (IHF) felt the need to issue a public statement disclaiming any connection with the group. The Greek National Committee of the said Federation, which has been effective throughout the Balkans, also published a press release to denounce what it felt was the BHHRG's impostures, while others accused it of "nam[ing] itself so as to usurp the prestige of its elder".
Monika Horaková, a Roma member of the Czech parliament, said in an open letter condemning a BHHRG's report in 1999:
Supporters of the BHHRG reply that the name "Helsinki" is not trademarked anywhere and no official imprimatur is needed for any group wishing to monitor the implementation of the Helsinki Accords
. They note that the European Commission established a "Helsinki Group on Women and Science" in Helsinki in 1999, with no connection with the monitoring of Helsinki Accords
.
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
-based non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
which monitors human rights in the 56 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
(OSCE). Despite its name, the organisation is not affiliated to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords...
. BHHRG has been critical of what it characterizes as Western interference in imposing democracy, and has supported the right of political independence from the west of a number of Communist and post-Communist regimes, as well as of a number of African dictators.
The group also uses the name OSCEwatch, indicating that it sees part of its mission as scrutinising the activities of the OSCE. The OSCEwatch and BHHRG websites are identical, and both websites openly refer to each other.
Membership and funding
The BHHRG was founded in 1992. It is run from the Oxford home of historian Professor Norman StoneNorman Stone
Norman Stone is a British academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara...
, who has on occasion taken part in BHHRG activities, and was co-founded by his wife Christine Stone and fellow Oxford historian Mark Almond
Mark Almond
Mark Almond is a writer and lecturer in Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford.Almond holds a Master's degree , and is the Chair of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group...
(who is also its chairman). Its trustees comprise Mark Almond, Anthony Daniels
Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist)
Anthony Daniels , who generally uses the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is an English writer and retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. He worked in places including a number of Sub-Saharan African countries and the east end of London...
(who writes for the Daily Telegraph under the pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple), John Laughland
John Laughland
John Laughland is a British eurosceptic conservative journalist, academic and author who writes on international affairs and political philosophy.-Career:...
, Christine Stone and Mary Walsh. Almond, Daniels, Laughland and Stone are members of Britain's conservative intelligentsia and are regular contributors to British newspapers. Chad Nagle, an American lawyer who frequently contributes to the libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
isolationist antiwar.com
Antiwar.com
Antiwar.com is a website devoted to opposing aggressive war, imperialism, and assaults on freedom associated with both. The editors describe their politics as libertarian. Their stated motiviation is, "to show how the imperialistic tendencies of the American government lead to a loss of civil...
website, is also associated with the group. Noel Malcolm
Noel Malcolm
Noel Robert Malcolm FBA FRSL is a modern English historian, writer, and columnist.-Life:Malcolm was educated at Eton College , read History at Peterhouse, Cambridge, wrote his doctorate dissertation at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was for a time Fellow of Gonville and Caius College,...
, a historian of early modern Britain and Europe who in the 1990s and early 2000s wrote a couple of mass market books on some aspects of Balkan history, appeared on a 1994 list of founders and spoke on its behalf as recently as 1999 but has apparently since left the group.
The BHHRG is not an "official" Helsinki Committee, as it is not affiliated with the Helsinki Committees' umbrella organisation, the International Helsinki Federation
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights was a self-governing group of non-governmental, not-for-profit organizations that act to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia...
(IHF). The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's representative in the IHF is the British Helsinki Subcommittee of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, established in 1976. This led to the BHHRG being mistakenly labelled the British Helsinki Committee, which prompted the British Helsinki Subcommittee to ask visitors to its website to
- "PLEASE NOTE that the so-called British Helsinki Group is NOT affiliated with the IHF" .
For its part, the BHHRG website says nothing on the subject.
The membership, management and funding of the BHHRG are somewhat obscure.
These aspects do not appear to be discussed at all on its website, and the details of its trustees are given only in its legally required returns to the UK's Charity Commission. Its published accounts state that it received £417,332 in income between 1997–2003 and spent £449,086 in the same period. The organisation appears to have fallen on hard times recently, with its funding falling by nearly 99% after 2001. A possible reason is suggested by The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, which reports that
- "the group lost almost all its supporters when it threw its weight behind people like Mr MiloševićSlobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
."
The identity of its backers is also unclear. Still with them in 1999, Noel Malcolm
Noel Malcolm
Noel Robert Malcolm FBA FRSL is a modern English historian, writer, and columnist.-Life:Malcolm was educated at Eton College , read History at Peterhouse, Cambridge, wrote his doctorate dissertation at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was for a time Fellow of Gonville and Caius College,...
explained that the group does not disclose its donors
- "for obvious reason[s]: they [critics] would then start to campaign [against the group] with the financial backers."
Only a few contributors are known by name. Material that the BHHRG issued in 1992 cited the Tory peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private foundation that provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. It was created in 1964 by David Packard and his wife Lucile Salter Packard. Following David Packard's death in 1996, the Foundation became the beneficiary of part of his estate...
as donors. The BHHRG's "About Us" page states that it "does not receive funding from any government" but, according to a Foreign Office source, it did receive money from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
for an election observer mission in 1995.
The source said funding was cut off because they found the group prejudiced, and partial and unreliable.
It has received no funding from this source since then and its advocates now say this proves the group is independent of governments.
Activities and achievements
The BHHRG website states as the main activities of the Group:- Monitoring the conduct of elections in OSCE member states.
- Examining issues relating to press freedom and freedom of speech
- Reporting on conditions in prisons and psychiatric institutions
- Covering asylum and immigration issues
The BHHRG publishes reports from first-hand observers, concentrating particularly on election monitoring in central and eastern Europe, as well as publishing frequent unsigned commentaries (just like the Economist does) about ongoing events in the region. A common theme in many of its publications has been a critical view of Western "meddling in the internal affairs" of central and east European countries, notably the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
.
Among its achievements the BHHRG's website claims:
- 1992 – BHHRG was the first NGO to expose the human rights situation in the former Soviet republic of Georgia
- 1993 – BHHRG exposure of fraud in the conduct of Russia's constitutional referendum was later admitted by the authorities.
- 1996 – BHHRG report of election fraud in Armenia's presidential election was only acknowledged in 1998
- 1998 – BHHRG predicted war in Kosovo in late February (after US envoy Robert Gelbard called the Kosovo Albanian separatist KLA a 'terrorist group')
- 1999 – BHHRG was the first human rights group to visit the notorious Sangatte camp for asylum seekers in France
- 2001 – BHHRG exposed the scandal of trafficking in women from Moldova
Most controversial aspects
The media connections of some of BHHRG members (especially John LaughlandJohn Laughland
John Laughland is a British eurosceptic conservative journalist, academic and author who writes on international affairs and political philosophy.-Career:...
, a self-avowed conspiracy theorist and passionate advocate of "national sovereignty") has enabled it to propagate its views through a number of major newspapers in Britain and the US. Yet it did not really become famous until publicly denouncing what were widely perceived as democratic movements against authoritarian former Communist rulers.
Among actions critics of the BHHRG find ill-advised:
- The BHHRG based part of a Latvia report on an interview with Alfreds Rubiks, the Communist who led the "National Salvation Committee" which would have co-ordinated repression had the coup against Gorbachev not failed in 1991.
- In March 1997, BHHRG member Anthony Daniels wrote an article for the Sunday TelegraphSunday TelegraphThe Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
: "The Media Back the Communists as Usual", in which he claimed that British journalists Miranda Vickers and James Pettifer, were "supporters of the former Stalinist regime of the late Enver HoxhaEnver HoxhaEnver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
", the former communist dictator of AlbaniaAlbaniaAlbania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
. They sued the paper for libel and settled out of court, with the Telegraph paying £10,000 to each and printing an apology.
- Another leading member, Christine Stone, has also written approvingly of ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
's Robert MugabeRobert MugabeRobert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
.
Other statements by the BHHRG include:
- denouncing as a "coup d'étatCoup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
" staged by his former protégés the November 2003 "Rose RevolutionRose RevolutionThe "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
" in GeorgiaGeorgia (country)Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
which deposed president Eduard ShevardnadzeEduard ShevardnadzeEduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...
(this is cited by them as an example of how the Western powers use and then dispose of their agents in the so-called Euro-Atlantic space). - claiming that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaThe International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
should not be prosecuting Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
for his alleged crimes because they find fault with its procedures and - that NATO should be prosecuted instead for bombing Yugoslavia on behalf of Kosovo Albanian separatists.
- proving that elections in BelarusBelarusBelarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
"met democratic standards", unlike the OSCE that could not back up its contrary claim, because it did not – in fact – observe the elections. - that LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
was not occupied by the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
but was "incorporated" into the USSR, - that the Roma people of the Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
do not suffer racismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
as generally reported, - that Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
and the RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n authorities acted correctly in the Beslan hostage crisis. - that concern for the massacres in the Sudan was driven by a lust for oil, and
- that the second round of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election was "generally representative of genuine popular will" and not falsified by the authorities, so that the December rerun election was illegitimate.
John Laughland
John Laughland
John Laughland is a British eurosceptic conservative journalist, academic and author who writes on international affairs and political philosophy.-Career:...
(who said that reports of mass graves in Iraq were exaggerated for political purposes) characterised some supporters of Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
as "neo-Nazis" and many of those backing him on the streets as "druggy skinheads from Lvov" whereas principal elements of the Jewish community supported Yushchenko.
These last claims prompted the publication of well-documented articles "exposing" the BHHRG's exploits.
The British weekly The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
published "Yanukovich's friends: A human-rights group that defends dictators". (Without a byline about who wrote the story).
The daily Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
published "PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes", written by David Aaronovitch
David Aaronovitch
David Aaronovitch is a British author, broadcaster, and journalist. He is a regular columnist for The Times, and author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country and Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History...
, to which John Laughland
John Laughland
John Laughland is a British eurosceptic conservative journalist, academic and author who writes on international affairs and political philosophy.-Career:...
, the subject of the article, objected, saying that it was "almost identical to" an article on a web site carrying "virulently antisemitic articles about the Jewish proclivity for rape, and about how the gas chambers at Auschwitz could not have existed". The controversy attracted many comments on the internet. The BHHRG's advocates reply by quoting Aleksandr Tsinker, "Head of the Observer Mission from the Institute for East European and CIS Nations" — an organization publicly known for nothing else — as saying that the Ukrainian election "was a free expression of the voters' will".
Some of the BHHRG's statements have been favorably quoted by the isolationist right in the US, by opponents of US foreign policy, as well as governments regarded by Western authorities as authoritarian and criminal, such as that of Belarus.
Its critics have accused the BHHRG of taking a predetermined ideological line while observing elections.
A British Foreign Office official quoted by Jeremy Druker said of them:
- "It was very clear that they had their own agenda. They also monitored the elections in Georgia in 1995, and it would appear Almond and his people had made up their minds about the election report even before the election had taken place. People at the time were not happy with the way that they monitored the election… they didn't set out in an impartial spirit."
The BHHRG is almost always more critical of social-democratic than nationalist rulers.
The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
characterises the BHHRG's opinion as "an intense dislike of liberal internationalism." Tom Palmer of the libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
summarizes their position as being that
- the mass movements to unseat [governments in eastern Europe] are nothing but stooges for the west, out to integrate those brave little authoritarian-socialist regimes into the 'New World Order,' privatize their state industries, and strip them of their assets.
The BHHRG's commentaries indeed allege that Western governments and international organisations are seeking to implement a "New World Order" in central and eastern Europe. Its supporters claim that the organisation exposes matters which Western governments and biased international organisations such as the UN and the OSCE had rather remained unknown.
For instance, it claims it denounced human rights abuses committed in Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
while these were ignored by the OSCE and the Council of Europe. Mark Almond, who has written on Balkan matters, has criticised the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia on behalf of Albanian separatists in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
as a "violation of international law" which resulted in "cultural genocide" against Serbs.
As self-proclaimed monitors of Human Rights in the countries concerned, they accuse other, intergovernmental organisations of being undemocratic, unelected, unaccountable, non-transparent meddlers in their internal affairs.
The OSCE has criticized the BHHRG for letting its journalists pose as impartial election monitors while publishing partisan polemics in newspapers, and for relying on short-term observer missions with a handful of people, an approach the OSCE abandoned as open to manipulation in 1996.
(The OSCE now uses large-scale long-term missions of four to six weeks with dozens of experts and hundreds of observers.)
The BHHRG dismisses the OSCE's position as an attempt to stifle legitimate criticism and independent reporting.
Name issues
The BHHRG has also been denounced for failing to mention that it enjoys no recognition from the International Helsinki FederationInternational Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights was a self-governing group of non-governmental, not-for-profit organizations that act to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia...
, but has been quite at odds with other organizations with similar names, at least since 1996.
The International Helsinki Federation (IHF) felt the need to issue a public statement disclaiming any connection with the group. The Greek National Committee of the said Federation, which has been effective throughout the Balkans, also published a press release to denounce what it felt was the BHHRG's impostures, while others accused it of "nam[ing] itself so as to usurp the prestige of its elder".
Monika Horaková, a Roma member of the Czech parliament, said in an open letter condemning a BHHRG's report in 1999:
- "I had thought that the Helsinki Group was a non-partisan body interested in exposing and helping to solve human rights abuses in the world. This report caused me to question my previously held beliefs. However, I have since learned that the BHHRG has no connection to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights in Vienna. It is a disgrace that the BHHRG is using the good Helsinki name to mislead the public into thinking that their racist propaganda is somehow affiliated with the well-respected Helsinki Group."
Supporters of the BHHRG reply that the name "Helsinki" is not trademarked anywhere and no official imprimatur is needed for any group wishing to monitor the implementation of the Helsinki Accords
Helsinki Accords
thumb|300px|[[Erich Honecker]] and [[Helmut Schmidt]] in Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki 1975....
. They note that the European Commission established a "Helsinki Group on Women and Science" in Helsinki in 1999, with no connection with the monitoring of Helsinki Accords
Helsinki Accords
thumb|300px|[[Erich Honecker]] and [[Helmut Schmidt]] in Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki 1975....
.
Articles by the BHHRG
- British Helsinki Human Rights Group official website
- BHHRG records and accounts, Charity Commission
- BHHRG 1992 report exposing torture in Shevardnadze's GeorgiaGeorgia (country)Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
- BHHRG 1999 report on Roma in the Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
- BHHRG opinion piece regarding Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
,23 September 2004 .- reply in letters page, The Guardian (UK), 2 December 2004
Articles by others about the BHHRG
- International Helsinki Federation's statement on the status of the BHHRG.
- "'Helsinki' Doesn't Guarantee Faithfulness To Human Rights", Greek Helsinki Monitor, 3 August 1997.
- "War of the Monitors" , Jeremy Druker, Transitions Magazine, 15 February 1999.
- criticism of 1999 report on Roma in Czech, by a member of the European Roma Rights Center.
- "PR man to Europe's nastiest regimes", The Guardian (UK), 30 November 2004.
- "Yanukovich's friends: A human-rights group that defends dictators", The Economist (UK), 2 December 2004.
- "Something Is Rotting at the Periphery of the Libertarian Movement.....", Tom Palmer, 11 December 2004.