Source: United Nations (video statements)
Hybrid press briefing by Mariana Katzarova, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, following the presentation of her report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee.
"Russia is now run through a state-sponsored system of fear and punishment where dissent is erased and civic space is dismantled,” said Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, briefing correspondents following the presentation of her report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee.
Special Rapporteurs and other human rights experts appointed under the special procedures mandate of the Human Rights Council are not UN staff and are independent of any government or organization. They receive no salary for their work.
Katzarova outlined what she described as an expanding network of repression targeting journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens in Russia. She said that “the most fashionable tool, if you wish, for repression, has become the abuse of the national security legislation,” citing charges such as treason, espionage, confidential cooperation with a foreign organization or foreign state, and broad applications of counter-terrorism and extremism laws.
According to the Special Rapporteur, these measures are designed to create a chilling effect. “People from different professions, different walks of life, just simply for posting or reposting messages on social media against the war have been penalized,” she said. “At first with administrative offenses, then with criminal offenses, imprisoned for their opposition against the war. And this works as a preventive mechanism for other people really to be afraid to show their true sentiments.”
Katzarova also drew attention to the plight of Ukrainian civilians held in Russian detention, saying, “Thousands of Ukrainian civilian detainees, we don’t know the exact count, because the Russian authorities are not revealing it, are lavishing in Russian detention, virtually disappeared.” Many of those known to be held, she added, remain without access to families or the outside world. She also raised concern over the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war. “POWs are not recognized in the Russian Federation as prisoners of war, because Russian authorities do not recognize this as a war, but just as a special military operation. Therefore, the POWs do not enjoy the protections of the Geneva Conventions.”
The Rapporteur noted that “Russia is the third in the world biggest jailer of journalists,” adding that “29 probably 28 because one actually was released recently,” referring to Vladislav Yasipenko, a journalist from Crimea who “spent four years in Russian detention being tortured to secure confession.”
Katzarova said punitive psychiatric treatment reminiscent of Soviet-era practices had returned “as a tool against antiwar voices.” She said her team documented 51 cases of activists subjected to forced psychiatric measures since 2022, including journalist Maria Ponomarenko, who “was ordered to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment for maintaining her antiwar stance in prison.” The journalist subsequently tried to commit suicide three times in one week, according to Katzarova.
She emphasized that “counter terrorism and extremism laws are really used to punish speech, not danger.” She said the repression now extended to the digital sphere. “Coupled with, of course, the absolute crackdown of Russian authorities – this is now intensifying – is freedom of the internet. So, for example, there is now a new law on extremism for searching extremist materials on the internet.”