The Moscow Research Center for Human Rights (MRCHR) is an umbrella group for human rights groups. It was set up in 1993. The Center unites about a dozen human rights nongovernmental organizations.The idea for the MRCHR grew out of a desire to collectively organize the human rights-related movements emerging from the loosely-structured community of informal social organizations which flowered during the last part of the Soviet period. A group of human rights activists, dissidents and former political prisoners acquired office space in which to work. The group soon found financial and moral support from the West, including the National Endowment for Democracy, Phare, and various private foundations. After receiving a series of small grants, the Center gradually emerged as a focal point for human rights work in 1993.