“Seismic decline” for the situation of human rights in Russia. The report realized an expert of the UN
Anti-Putin protests in Russia, January 23, 2021, photo: Gavriil Grigorov / Tass / Profimedia Images
The situation of human rights in Russia has been dramatically worsen since the war in Ukraine began, according to a new report by an expert from the United Nations (UN), in which “endemic” torture and the participation of medical professionals in abuses, AFP reports.
The UN special rapporteur for the situation of human rights in Russia, Mariana Kaitarova, said in his latest report that Moscow has launched a systematic repression against critics after the beginning of the large -scale military invasion in Ukraine, in February 2022.
“The situation of human rights has been constantly damaged, constituting a seismic decline,” she concluded in the report she will present on Monday to the Human Rights Council.
Public institutions, transformed “into repression and war instruments”
In the last three and a half years, “the Russian authorities have intensified the use of criminal prosecution, long -term imprisonment, intimidation, torture and bad treatments to silence the opposition to the war,” the report shows.
Kaitarova, which was appointed by the Council in 2023 and thus became the first UN observer for the situation of human rights in Russia, warned that the official speech in Russia “reinterprets the legitimate exercise of human rights as” existential security threats “and presents such” state enemies “.
The independent expert, who does not speak on behalf of the UN, said that the Russian authorities “have destroyed institutional independence, bringing the judicial, legislative system and law enforcement under direct political control”.
“This systemic capture has transformed public institutions into repression and war instruments,” added Mariana Kaitarova.
The report is denounced in particular “continuous, wide and systematic resort, to torture and bad treatments by law enforcers, security forces, penitentiary officials and members of the armed forces” in Russia.
At the same time, it is criticized “a clear model of participation of health professionals and tolerance of the most abominable cakes, especially on Ukrainian detainees.”
Kaitarova said that the independently corroborated testimonies of the victims describe how medical staff, in some cases, trained prison staff “on how to apply electric shocks to cause greater pain.”
She has launched an appeal to Russia, asking “to prosecute any medical personnel who participated, tolerated or did not report torture or bad treatments.”
