{"id":12222,"date":"2024-09-23T18:39:29","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T18:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/systematic-crackdown-on-human-rights-since-ukraine-invasion\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T18:39:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T18:39:29","slug":"systematic-crackdown-on-human-rights-since-ukraine-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/systematic-crackdown-on-human-rights-since-ukraine-invasion\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Systematic crackdown’ on human rights since Ukraine invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Human rights in Russia have \u201cseverely deteriorated\u201d since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, culminating in a \u201csystematic crackdown\u201d on civil society, a UN report has found.<\/p>\n

The investigation details police brutality, widespread repression of independent media and persistent attempts to silence Kremlin critics using punitive new laws.<\/p>\n

Mariana Katzarova, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, was denied entry into the country and compiled the report by speaking to political groups, activists and lawyers.<\/p>\n

She found \u201ccredible reports\u201d of torture and allegations of sexual violence, rape and threats of sexual abuse by police.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has not commented publicly since its release.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Human rights abuses in Russia have been well documented during the Vladimir Putin era, but the latest UN report<\/a> pays particular attention to how the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has accelerated what it says was previously a \u201csteady decline\u201d.<\/p>\n

It details how laws passed in recent years targeting the spread of so-called fake news, and individuals or organisations deemed to have received foreign support, have sought to \u201cmuzzle\u201d any opposition, both physically and online.<\/p>\n

The new laws have led to \u201cmass arbitrary arrests\u201d and long prison sentences, it adds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Among the cases the report highlights is that of Artyom Kamardin, who was jailed for seven years for reading an anti-war poem<\/a> in public – an act authorities deemed to be \u201cinciting hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Katzarova told the BBC: \u201cRussians are getting shockingly long prison sentences. <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s seven years for reading an anti war-poem, or saying a prayer by a priest which was against the war, or producing a play perceived to be anti-war. Two women are still in prison for that in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

She praised those who continue to organise despite threats and said she believes opposition to the war is quietly widespread.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs in any totalitarian, authoritarian state, people don’t want to get in trouble – it doesn’t mean that they are supportive of some madness, an aggressive war against their neighbour,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The report accuses the government of seeking to propagate its views on the Ukraine conflict among children via the introduction of mandatory school lessons, officially labelled as \u201cimportant conversations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren refusing to attend such classes and their parents are subject to pressure and harassment,\u201d it adds. The report highlights the case of a fifth-grader from Moscow who was interrogated by police after skipping the class, before their mother was charged with \u201cfailing to fulfil parental duties\u201d.<\/p>\n

It found that many men sent to Ukraine \u201chave been mobilised by deception, the use of force, or by taking advantage of their vulnerability\u201d, while those who have refused to fight have been held in detention centres in occupied areas and \u201cthreatened with execution, violence or a prison sentence if they did not return to the front lines\u201d.<\/p>\n

Men from indigenous communities make up a disproportionate number of those drafted into the army, it found, and there is evidence \u201cauthorities have imposed travel restrictions, blocking exit routes from towns and villages during mobilisation sweeps\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Katzarova said: \u201cIndigenous people\u2026 are really facing extinction if this continues. <\/p>\n

“I think, partly my guess and the trends that indigenous leaders are painting, is that this is part of the Russian authorities really wanting to send to the front line \u2018disposable people\u2019, not the Slavs from St Petersburg or Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the report:<\/p>\n