The Public Verdict Foundation was established in February 2004 as a non-profit, non-partisan organization offering legal assistance to victims of human rights abuse at the hands of law enforcement officers in Russia. The founders of Public Verdict include prominent Russian human rights groups and charitable organizations, such is the «Memorial» International Society for Human Rights, History and Education; the Moscow Helsinki Group; the Open Russia; the Democracy Foundation (the Alexander N. Yakovlev Foundation); and the Russian Regions Foundation.

The Public Verdict Foundation works to promote a climate of intolerance to abusive law enforcement practices in the Russian society, and to ensure civilian oversight of the law enforcement.

The Foundation informs the wide public on the situation with human rights violations committed by the law enforcement.

*Natalia Taubina, Director, the Public Verdict Foundation:

• We work to help people defend their rights, and we wish that the authorities as well as the public abide by the law, so that the term «arbitrariness» is rarely, if ever, used to characterize life in Russia