Since 2021, Russian authorities have escalated their longstanding concerted campaign of repression directed against its perceived domestic opponents for the apparent purpose of silencing dissent and independent groups within Russia. This repression has entailed widespread violations of the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association; and arbitrary detention, often accompanied by torture and ill-treatment.
As a consequence of this repression, Russia’s civil society, independent media, and political opposition have been dramatically weakened; the number of political prisoners and wrongly detained individuals has increased; and many who have not been detained for having expressed opposition to the war or for having engaged in political dissent, human rights advocacy, or independent journalism have been compelled to flee the country or curtail their work. Russia’s domestic repression has also been both a catalyst of and a consequence of its aggression against Ukraine and its commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In a new briefing paper, entitled “Human Rights Violations inside the Russian Federation: A Catalyst and Consequence of Russia’s Aggression,” the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights calls on governments to take measures, individually and collectively, including at the United Nations, to respond meaningfully to Russia’s domestic repression.
Specifically, JBI recommends that all governments:
1. Support independent monitors documenting rights violations committed by Russia, particularly the newly-appointed UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia and human rights defenders and journalists who have been forced to flee the country, and amplify their findings.
2. Hold Russia accountable at international organizations for its systematic rights violations, particularly by ensuring that Russia’s campaign for re-election to the UN Human Rights Council in October is unsuccessful.
3. take steps to hold Russian perpetrators of serious human rights violations accountable, particularly by designating additional Russian officials under so called “Magnitsky-style” targeted sanctions regimes that allow for the imposition of financial sanctions and travel restrictions against individuals credibly alleged to have committed serious human rights violations or engaged in corruption.
4. Provide protection and redress to Russian human rights defenders, journalists, and other victims of its repression, particularly by ensuring that foreign diplomats inside Russia actively seek to assess the detention conditions of and monitor judicial proceedings concerning Russian political prisoners and other wrongly detained individuals like Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny, who have allegedly been denied medical attention and are at serious risk of harm, and working to secure the release of foreign nationals wrongly detained by Russian authorities, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
The full statement is available here.