We, the undersigned human rights organisations, call on the United Nations Human Rights Council to respond robustly to the recent crackdown by the Russian authorities on independent civil society and dissenting voices in the country. Russian authorities are systematically using the tools of the state to arbitrarily deprive citizens of liberty and curtail the exercise of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. The alarming trends the international community has observed in Russia for more than a decade have been drastically increasing since the end of 2020 and require urgent international action. 

At the beginning of 2021, Russia took a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. As a member of the international body charged with the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe, Russia’s active efforts to attack human rights domestically is particularly cynical. Members of the Council must use the 46th Session – Russia’s first session under its current membership – to strongly denounce these actions to use the tools of the state to attack independent civil society, severely limit civic space and silence dissenting voices. 

Most recently, hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have taken to the streets in protest of attacks on human rights and dissenting opinion, according to independent monitors. Protests erupted on 23 January following the arrest and detention of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Information collected by the monitoring organisation OVD-Info reported more than 4,000 protesters arrested on that day alone. International and local media showed footage of riot police brutally attacking peaceful protesters, including the elderly, women, and children. A week later, on 31 January, people in Russia repeated their calls for human rights and political plurality with hundreds of thousands participating in actions across the vast country. Once again, the authorities responded with violence and arrested more than 7,500 according to OVD-Info. Finally, following the sentencing of Navalny on 2 February, Russians once again took to the streets in protest and faced excessive violence from riot police who detained a further 1,400 people. This brings the total number of arrests since late January to more than 12,000.  

While international attention has been understandably focused on the arrest of opposition figure Alexey Navalny on 17 January 2021, this action must be considered in light of recent legislation which, according to local Russian human rights organisations, will lead to “a significant increase in total government control over Russian society and a growth in persecution of dissent”. It is imperative that the Council take immediate action at the 46th Council session to condemn these actions and call on the Russian state to adhere to its international human rights obligations. 

In 2012, Russia approved a novel “Foreign Agents” Law. This law required any organisation receiving minimal amounts of funding from private or public foreign entities and engaging in “political activities” to register as a “foreign agent”. For registering organisations, the law established reporting requirements as well as the requirement to identify as foreign agents on any publications. The law defined political activity unusually broadly and vaguely which allowed authorities to label any human rights or advocacy activities as political. The following year, Russia’s then-ombudsman challenged the law in Russian Constitutional Court but the case was dismissed. Two years later, the Russian parliament amended the law to allow the Justice Ministry to register organisations as foreign agents without their consent. In late 2019, legislation on mass media was amended to target media, individual journalists and bloggers as foreign agents. 

At the end of 2020, the Russian government introduced and passed four pieces of legislation capping their decade-long attack on civic space, independent civil society, and dissenting opinion. Among other things, these pieces of legislation: 

  • Further expand the list of actors who can be designated “foreign agents” to include unregistered NGOs and individuals regardless of nationality and require founders, members, participants, and employees of such organisations to mark accordingly their affiliation on any materials they publish and any official communications with the authorities; and, requires the media to identify them as foreign agents in any information published about, or citing, so-called foreign agents (Federal Law No. 481-FZ)
  • Restrict ability to organize rallies, demonstrations, marches, and pickets, including new measures restricting how such activities are financed and links those restrictions to foreign agents designations (Federal Law No. 541-FZ)
  • Introduce a five year jail sentence for libel (libel was criminalized in 2012) (Federal Law No. 538-FC)
  • Criminalize acts of individuals who can be designated as individual foreign agents according to recent legislative amendments and introduce a five year jail sentence (Federal Law No. 525-FZ)

Unfortunately, Russian authorities’ work to systematically pre-emptively limit the ability of the Russian people to exercise their human rights has not stopped. Currently, the State Duma is considering a number of bills to continue these dangerous and alarming trends. Once approved, these pieces of legislation will: 

  • Require so-called foreign agent NGOs to pre-notify the Ministry of Justice about planned activities and gives the Ministry of Justice the authority to ban any activities preemptively but does not specify the grounds by which the Ministry of Justice may take such action. In the case of non-compliance, the Ministry of Justice will have the authority to ask a court to liquidate the non-compliant organisation (https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/1052523-7).
  • Expand government ability to regulate public awareness raising activities and sharply restricts the freedom of expression (https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/1057895-7).
  • Introduce penalties for non-compliance with these other pieces of legislation and imposes these penalties on organisations and their officers, and individuals.

We urge the members of the Human Rights Council to take immediate action to protect and promote human rights and strongly condemn the actions of the Russian authorities. Attacks by Council member states on independent civil society, civic space, and dissenting voices must not go unaddressed. The Council must act.  

Signed:

1 Agora International Human Rights Group, Russia
2 Almenda (member, Human Rights House Crimea), Ukraine
3 Amnesty International, International
4 Association of Ukrainian human rights monitors on Law Enforcement (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
5 B.a.B.e. Be active. Be emancipated (member, Human Rights House Zagreb), Croatia
6 Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House, Belarus
7 Belarusian Association of Journalists (member, Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House), Belarus
8 Belarusian Helsinki Committee (member, Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House), Belarus
9 Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (member, Human Rights House Belgrade), Serbia
10 Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Bulgaria
11 Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine
12 Center for Participation and Development, Georgia
13 Center for Peace Studies (member, Human Rights House Zagreb), Croatia
14 Center of Civil Education «Almenda» (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv,) Ukraine
15 Centre d’Initiative du Caucase (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
16 Centre de la protection internationale, France
17 Civic Assistance Committee, Russia
18 Civic Initiatives (member, Human Rights House Belgrade), Serbia
19 Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, International
20 Crimean Human Rights Group (member, Human Rights House Crimea), Ukraine
21 Croatian Youth Network (member, Human Rights House Zagreb), Croatia
22 CROSOL – Croatian Platform for International Citizen Solidarity (member, Human Rights House Zagreb), Croatia
23 Crude Accountability, USA
24 Dignity Public Association, Kazakhstan
25 Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past (member, Human Rights House Zagreb), Croatia
26 DRA Berlin, Germany
27 East-SOS Charitable foundation (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
28 Educational Human Rights House – Chernihiv, Ukraine
29 Election Monitoring & Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS) (member, Human Rights House Azerbaijan), Azerbaijan
30 Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) (member, Human Rights House Tbilisi), Georgia
31 Health & Human Rights Info, Norway
32 Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Vanadzor, Armenia
33 Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (member, Human Rights House Belgrade), Serbia
34 Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
35 HRC Memoria,l Russia
36 Human Rights Center (HRIDC) (member, Human Rights House Tbilisi), Georgia
37 The Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan
38 Human RIghts Center Viasna (member, Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House), Belarus
39 Human Rights Centre «ZMINA» (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv and Human Rights House Crimea), Ukraine
40 Human Rights Club, Azerbaijan
41 Human Rights House Crimea, Ukraine
42 Human Rights House Foundation, International
43 Human Rights House Tbilisi, Georgia
44 Human Rights House Yerevan, Armenia
45 Human Rights House Zagreb, Croatia
46 Human Rights Monitoring Institute, Lithuania
47 Human Rights Movement: Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan Public Association, Kyrgyzstan
48 Human Rights Vector (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
49 Humanistic Technologies Center «AHALAR» (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
50 IDP Women Association “Consent”, Georgia
51 Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
52 International Partnership for Human Rights, International
53 International Service for Human Rights, International
54 Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Kazakhstan
55 KRF Public Alternative, Ukraine
56 Legal Education Society (member, Human Rights House Azerbaijan), Azerbaijan
57 Legal Initiative (member, Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House), Belarus
58 Legal Policy Research Centre, Kazakhstan
59 Media Institute (member, Human Rights House Tbilisi), Georgia
60 Moscow Center for Prison Reform (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
61 Moscow Helsinki Group (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
62 Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Netherlands
63 NGO MART (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
64 No Borders Project (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
65 Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Norway
66 PEN International Armenian Center (member, Human Rights House Yerevan), Armenia
67 Pink NGO (member, Human Rights House Yerevan), Armenia
68 Policy Center (member, Human Rights House Belgrade), Serbia
69 Promo LEX Association, Moldova
70 Public Verdict Foundation, Russia
71 Rafto Foundation, Norway
72 Real World, Real People NGO (member, Human Rights House Yerevan), Armenia
73 Regional Centre for Human Rights (member, Human Rights House Crimea), Ukraine
74 Regional civic initiative – the right to life and civil dignity (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
75 Right of the Child (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
76 Rights Georgia (member, Human Rights House Tbilisi), Georgia
77 Sapari (member, Human Rights House Tbilisi), Georgia
78 Social Partnership Foundation (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
79 Socioscope NGO (member, Human Rights House Yerevan), Armenia
80 The Swedish OSCE-network, Sweden
81 Swiss Helsinki Committee, Switzerland
82 Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (member, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv), Ukraine
83 Union of the Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia (member, Russian Research Center for Human Rights), Russia
84 Women’s Resource Center NGO (member, Human Rights House Yerevan), Armenia
85 YUCOM – Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (member, Human Rights House Belgrade), Serbia

Top photo:  Evgeny Feldman/Meduza