The human rights situation in Russia has deteriorated significantly since the country invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, a UN rapporteur concluded in a report released in Geneva on Monday.
“The situation had been steadily deteriorating over the past 20 years, partly due to the two wars in Chechnya that ended in 2009,” said the person responsible for monitoring the human rights situation in Russia, Mariana Katzarova.
This is the first report prepared by the expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
According to the French agency AFP, the document should be presented to the Human Rights Council during its current session in Geneva, Switzerland.
The acceptance of the rapporteur’s mandate by the Human Rights Council marked a defeat for Moscow in the diplomatic battle it has been waging with Kiev’s allies in all UN fora since the invasion of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin’s regime has stepped up repression of opponents and those who challenge Russia’s war against Ukraine, which Moscow officially labels a “special military operation.”
The repression led to the closure of media outlets deemed hostile by the regime and the flight of many critics and activists abroad.
Others, such as Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza, are serving harsh prison sentences in Russia.
In the report, Katzarova accused Russian authorities of “severely restricting freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, both ‘online’ and ‘offline,’ according to AFP.”
They also “completely undermined the independence of the judiciary and the guarantees of a fair trial”, the Bulgarian rapporteur said.
Katzarova also denounced recently passed legislation “to muzzle civil society and punish rights defenders.”
“The often violent enforcement of these laws and regulations has led to a systematic repression of civil society organizations, closing public spaces and independent media outlets,” he wrote.
According to the rapporteur, “impunity for human rights violations at national level and the withdrawal of the Russian Federation from the European Court of Human Rights have reduced the opportunities for victims to seek redress”.
On the report “Repression in Wartime,” released in July, the independent Russian organization OVD-Info denounced “an unprecedented wave of repression” shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.
OVD-Info documented approximately 20,000 arrests for anti-war positions at demonstrations, social media posts, displaying symbols or private conversations.
The repression statistics include more than 600 criminal cases and thousands of administrative proceedings or extrajudicial pressure.
OVD-Info itself was blocked in December 2021 due to activities aimed at “promoting terrorism and extremism in Russia”.
Source: DN
