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Ahead of the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, HRHF spoke with Ukrainian human rights defender Liudmyla Yankina about the main challenges facing civil society, and the situation for human rights in Ukraine. We also discussed what has changed over the last two years through the prism of her work protecting representatives of civil society.

With reference to upcoming Human Rights Council elections in October, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at HRC54 on 29 September 2023, repeating condemnation of Russia’s application for Council membership, and underlining that no State which retaliates against civil society for engaging with the UN should be a Council member.

Human Rights House Foundation and several INGOs call on States to support the renewal of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation during the upcoming 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

On 28 June 2023, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council highlighting increasing impunity or lack of accountability for violations of the freedom of assembly and association, citing the situations in Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan as examples of the growing challenge in the wider Eastern Europe region.

On 26 June 2023 Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at HRC53 on the challenges faced by human rights lawyers, particularly in Azerbaijan, as well as raising concerns about the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) in Europe. HRHF also asked the Special Rapporteur for recommendations for judges and lawyers that have had to flee their countries including Belarus and Russia.

The environment for human rights defenders and organisations in Russia is increasingly dire. In this report, Human Rights House Foundation outlines the impact of the sweeping crackdown and use of increasingly restrictive and repressive legislation in Russia on the work of Russian civil society domestically and internationally, providing recommendations to the international community and the Russian authorities.

2020 was a year of unprecedented challenges in the wake of COVID-19. In our annual report, discover how Human Rights House Foundation and the network of Human Rights Houses adapted to meet these new challenges and continue our work together to advance human rights at home and abroad.

On 20 September 2020, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at the Human Rights Council on reprisals. In the statement, HRHF highlighted the use of the Foreign Agent law to undermine independent civil society, and the climate of fear that is maintained in Russia and the external territories it occupies through a variety of state-controlled tools including the misuse of anti-extremist and anti-terrorist legislation.

On Friday 17 January 2020, the “Portraits of Strength” jury unanimously chose Georgian photographer Salome Sagaradze’s photograph of Baia Pataraia of Human Rights House Tbilisi as the competition’s winner.