The UN concluded that the human rights situation in the Russian Federation has “deteriorated significantly” since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Moscow “silencing civil society” and “undermining the independence of the justice system.”
The conclusions are included in the first report prepared by the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, presented on Thursday at the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. which The human rights situation in Russia, which had “already been steadily deteriorating over the past two decades”, continued to deteriorate, “forcing many Russians into exile”.
According to Mariana Katzarova, who was appointed the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia in October 2022 and started working last May 1“The Russian authorities have severely restricted freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression” and “fundamentally undermined the independence of the judiciary and the guarantees of a fair trial.”
“A series of administrative sanctions are arbitrarily imposed on dissidents and violence is used against peaceful demonstrators. Both the harshness of recent criminal sentences and the number of people convicted on political charges have increased,” he points out.
Recognizing “recent legal restrictions being used to muzzle civil society and punish human rights activists and others for their anti-war stance”, the report points out that “the often violent application of these laws and regulations resulted in a systematic repression of civil society organizations that closed public spaces and independent media.”
Moscow’s action “has led to mass arbitrary arrests, detentions and intimidation of human rights defenders, peaceful anti-war activists, journalists, cultural figures, minorities and anyone who speaks out against the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine.”
Katzarova emphasizes that “women, especially human rights defenders, activists and journalists, have been victims of specific gender-based violence, humiliation and harassment”, noting that “the continued use of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, endangers the lives of detained people.”
On the other hand, the report points out, “limited liability 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 remedies and reparations.”
“The climate of impunity, the unpredictability of legal changes, in addition to their ambiguity and arbitrary application, forced many Russians into exile. The void left by censorship and the suppression of independent media was replaced by disinformation and state-sanctioned war propaganda,” he noted.
The Special Rapporteur concludes that, given the exposed situation, “the need for continued monitoring and analysis of human rights issues in the Russian Federation is all the more necessary given the limited capacity of regional mechanisms and the expulsion of the Russian Federation from the Governing Council. Europe”.
Finally, Mariana Katzarova thanks “all the people who provided information for this report, often in situations of grave danger or increased risk of intimidation and reprisals,” and calls on the international community to “take urgent measures to ensure your protection ”.
Source: DN
