Human rights in Russia
UN Special Rapporteur: Torture in Russia
Updated on September 16, 2024Reading time: 2 minutes
The human rights situation in Russia is desolate, according to a UN report. Since the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, things have gotten worse.
Geneva (dpa) – According to a UN report, human rights are increasingly being ignored in Russia. “There is now a structural, state-sponsored system of human rights violations,” reports Mariana Katzarova. The Bulgarian was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2023 as a special rapporteur on the situation in Russia. The system is designed to suppress civil society and political opposition, their report says.
Critics of the Russian war against Ukraine and those who think differently are being persecuted more and more harshly. Katzarova put the number of convicted political prisoners at at least 1,372. These human rights defenders, journalists and war critics were accused on flimsy grounds and sentenced to long prison terms.
They experienced torture in custody. Political prisoners are held in isolation cells, others are forcibly admitted to psychiatric hospitals. These are only those known to Katzarova. The true number may be higher, said an employee.
More and more people are being classified as “foreign agents” – which means, in Russia's view, that they are supported or influenced by foreign countries. This significantly limits their work opportunities and forces many to give up. The law on this comes from 2012.
As of August 16, 846 individuals and organizations had been labeled as foreign agents, most of them since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. This includes almost 200 media organizations and more than 100 journalists. From 2012 to March 2022, only 336 were classified as “foreign agents”.
“President Vladimir Putin's regime has turned Russia into a prison for its own citizens,” said German Ambassador to Geneva Katharina Stasch. “The Special Rapporteur's report makes it clear: opposition members, journalists and dissidents are being arbitrarily detained and ill-treated in order to stifle any form of free expression. This barbarism must finally come to an end.”
Katzarova said Russia refused to cooperate with her.
