Lev Ponomarev has been working as a human rights defender since 1980s. He is the head of the movement For Human Rights which keeps track and reports a wide spectrum of human rights violations including freedom of expression, refugee rights, trials monitoring and freedom of association. The human rights defender is a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. He also took part in the creation of Human Rights Center “Memorial”.
HRDs are often subjected to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threat, raids and searches on their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly.
