© Photo: ISHR
As Russian authorities continue to repress human rights defenders and criminalise dissent, States should ensure that the UN Human Rights Council renews a mandate to monitor and report on the human rights crisis in the country.
ISHR, together with a coalition of 15 other leading international NGOs, is calling on States at the UN Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation.
The call comes as Russian authorities continue and worsen their repression of human rights defenders, criminalisation of dissent, and policy of reprisals against defenders, victims and witnesses who seek to report Russia’s violations and abuses to international human rights bodies.
In addition to calling on States to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, ISHR is also calling on States to oppose Russia’s cynical candidacy for election to the Human Rights Council. As a State that is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as a pattern of reprisals and widespread repression of civil society, including through the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders, Russia should not be eligible to stand, and certainly should not be elected, to the world’s peak multilateral human rights body.
The joint civil society letter to States calling on them to support renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia is available here.
Further information about the forthcoming Human Rights Council elections, and the objective grounds on which States should oppose the election of Russia, as well as that of Burundi and China, is available here.
Local authorities in Geneva have announced their intention to place a permanent public monument paying tribute to persecuted human rights defenders, including the late Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli. The move follows a civil society petition to have a bust made in honour of Cao placed in a prominent location in the city.
A newly-released confidential letter by a UN Special Rapporteur documents the disbarment of human rights lawyers in China and the tightening ideological control over lawyers and law firms. The UN expert denounces disappearances, closed-door trials, harassment of relatives, travel bans, and other abuses targeting human rights lawyers.
On Tuesday 16 April 2024, ISHR delivered to both Geneva’s Administrative Council and its legislative counterpart, the Municipal Council, physical copies of the more than 1000 signatures collected in support of a memorial honouring Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli.
