Elena Ryabinina, aged 60, the manager of Right to Asylum Program of the Human Rights Institute and a prominent human rights activist, passed away on Sunday morning in Moscow.

Recently Elena Ryabinina had cancer, but nevertheless, she worked hard and a lot. She did not cry, she did not complain, and she did not ask for anything…

Elena Ryabinina was a strong woman.

She often made comments about Central Asian refugees for Jarayon’s website. Elena gave her last interview for our website on March 30 2014, and the next day she was hospitalized.

In fact, I learned about Elena’s disease on March 30, the day when I asked her to write comments for me about Yusuf Kasymakhunov, an Uzbek refugee who was kidnapped in Russia and secretly moved to Uzbekistan. Elena Ryabinina defended his rights from the first days of his detention in Russia.

She wrote to me that she had cancer and might be taken to hospital that or next day, and asked to call her that day. She added it was easier for her to give an interview on the phone rather than write down comments to send by email. So, I called her.

To be honest, my heart grew heavy when I heard Elena’s voice on the phone as that voice was quite different from Elena’s voice I had heard.

That day she had a hoarse voice, a voice of a sick person. She coughed a lot, it was very difficult for her to speak; she had a choke. But nevertheless, she made comments for our website. I could not tell her words of support on the phone, but later on I sent her an email to somehow support her, and offered her help. But Elena did not answer… Perhaps she was struggling with pain and could not sit at the computer to check and answer her emails. Maybe she had already been taken to the hospital. But maybe Elena did read my email, but decided not to ask for anything. That was her style.

I met with Lena Ryabinina five years ago during one of my trips to France. From the very beginning, she asked me to address her in an unofficial form. “Just call me Lena”, she told me. Since then, I addressed her using her first name Lena. She was very simple and easy to communicate with.

I met Lena in person only once, and then we kept in touch by phone or through emails. But that first and unfortunately last session with Lena will remain in my memory for good. She was cheerful, very energetic and social. She communicated a lot with young people, and young people responded to her the same way. She brought a camera to France, and when she had free time after training sessions, she took a lot of pictures of historic buildings, people … everything interesting and beautiful.

Everybody will die sooner or later. And we realize, recognize and humbly take this. But it is difficult to realize and accept the fact that the really good person has left us. She was a real person with capital P. That kind of person Lena Ryabinina was! I wished this wise, intelligent and strong woman could overcome cancer to live on, to live on for the sake of hers, family members of hers and everybody who needed her help.

Lena Ryabinina was a real professional. A human rights activist, who saved many lives from torture, suffering, humiliation, which refugees from dictatorships in Central Asia might suffer. Lena Ryabinina made efforts so that many Uzbeks and Tajiks, who fled their countries and seek asylum in Russian due to religious and political repression in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, get refugee status. She defended victims of fabricated cases on Islamic extremism and terrorism. Some of her clients have been kidnapped in Russia by secret services of their countries.

Ryabinina and her colleagues made efforts to have Russia follow the Refugee Convention ratified in the early nineties as well and the federal refugee law. Ryabinina repeatedly stressed that practices of the Federal Migration Service do not consider risks of repressions and tortures which refugees may suffer in their homelands. Ryabinina also revealed violations of the international law in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization agreements on mutual recognition of acts of extremism.

Elena Ryabinina studied at the Leningrad Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, and then she transferred to the Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman, her major was optical engineering. She worked at the Institute of Optical and Physical Measurements for many years.

In 2002, Elena Ryabinina started working at Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie (Civic Assistance) as a human rights activist, the main direction was political refugees from Central Asia. In 2010, she headed a program of the Institute of Human Rights implemented in partnership with UNHCR.

A special ceremony dedicated to Elena Ryabinina’s farewell will be held on May 6 at 13:00 in the morgue of the Central Hospital of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The funeral would be at 16:00 in “Memorial”.

Fiery Hearts Club International Human Rights Organization and Jarayon express heartfelt condolences to the family of Elena Ryabinina.

Dear Lena!

Rest in peace!

Thank you for being with oppressed people for many years, who badly needed your help.

Thank you for your work to establish justice. And thank you for being with us all these years!

You will always be in our memories and our hearts…

Guzal AKHMEDOVA