Russia facing 'seismic decline' in human rights as crackdown on dissent intensifies: UN expert

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - Russia's accelerating crackdown on human rights defenders, lawyers and anti-war voices marks a dramatic deterioration in civic freedoms, a UN expert said on Thursday.

Mariana Katzarova, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, said authorities had "accelerated their assault on civic freedoms with the dismantling of what remains of independent civil society in the country over recent weeks, resulting in a seismic decline of the human rights situation."

In a statement, Katzarova said "the latest wave of designations of organisations as 'undesirable' is one of the most striking examples, along with the instrumentalisation of national security and public safety legislation to target lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders."

Last week, long-standing civil society groups were added to the growing list of "undesirable" organisations – a roster that already includes Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the statement said. Under Russian law, involvement with such groups can lead to "prison terms of up to six years."

More than 280 organizations have now been labelled "undesirable," while over 1,100 entities and individuals have been designated as "foreign agents," the expert shared. Katzarova said these "colossal numbers reflect a deliberate and calculated strategy to isolate the Russian population from independent information, legal assistance, and peaceful activism."

These latest designations come amid "ever shrinking civic space," according to the expert. In October, she said, human rights lawyers Olga Sadovskaya and Elena Shakhova were targeted by a public smear campaign, and Shakhova was later charged with "discrediting the Russian army."

In November, the statement said, courts upheld the conviction of Memorial leader Sergey Davidis, while the Supreme Court designated the late Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation as a "terrorist organisation."

Katzarova condemned "such blatant abuse of counter-terrorism legislation to criminalise peaceful expression and the anti-war stance."

"Repression cannot erase the work of human rights defenders – they cannot be silenced," she said. "Repression only exposes the profound insecurity of a Government that fears scrutiny and accountability."