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On 23 May 2022, a group of over 30 Russian civil society organisations and independent human rights defenders issued a public call to the UN Human Rights Council to establish a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation at the Council’s upcoming 50th session.

Human Rights House Foundation is alarmed by the latest wave of threats and violence against journalists, human rights defenders, and activists in Azerbaijan as well as credible allegations of state involvement and the authorities’ failure to promptly bring perpetrators to justice. We call on the Azerbaijani authorities to ensure a safe environment for journalists and other human rights defenders and ensure full accountability for those responsible for threats and violence against them.

On 12 May 2022 at the 34th Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation repeated its condemnation of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, called for every assistance to be given to the Commission of Inquiry to carry out its work, and urged the United Nations to do its utmost to protect human rights defenders and journalists working in Ukraine.

On 16 May 2022, Human Rights House Foundation and several Ukrainian and international partners hosted “Moscow Mechanism report on Ukraine: Next steps for the OSCE,” a pre-event for OSCE delegations and stakeholders ahead of the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting.

Human Rights House Foundation, alongside the undersigned human rights organisations, welcomes the resolution and recommendation on “Safeguarding and promoting genuine democracy in Europe”, passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday.

The consequences of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine is the focus of the ongoing plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg this week. Ahead of the urgent procedure debate on “Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine: ensuring accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law” on Thursday, 28 April 2022, Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) urges PACE to call for additional support to human rights defenders in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus and to support the establishment of international accountability mechanisms for serious violations of human rights committed as part of Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Today, the Minsk City Court will begin hearings in the trial against Viasna member Marfa Rabkova and volunteer Andrey Chapiuk. Both are being prosecuted on politically motivated charges and face up to 20 years and eight years of imprisonment respectively. The proceedings are taking place as Viasna’s 26th anniversary approaches, in an overwhelmingly repressive context in Belarus. The signatory organisations reiterate their utmost support for Viasna, and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all its members as well as all arbitrarily imprisoned human rights defenders in the country.

The renewed invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022 must be considered within the broader regional human rights crisis which encompasses Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine and addressed accordingly by the international community.

Human Rights House Foundation joins partners of The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) in welcoming recent steps by the Council of Europe (CoE) to act on the growing threat of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).