Russian Human Rights: A Comprehensive Report

Based on the information provided by UN News, the human rights situation in Russia has experienced a significant decline, particularly following the invasion of Ukraine.

The 2022 report by the U.S. State Department on human rights in Russia outlines several key issues:

The United Nations Human Rights Council is set to examine the human rights record of the Russian Federation for the fourth time under the Universal Periodic Review Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group. This examination will take place on November 13, 2023, in Geneva and will be webcast live. This review is part of the UPR Working Group's session running from November 6 to 17, 2023, during which 14 states, including Russia, will be reviewed. The previous UPR reviews of Russia occurred in February 2009, April 2013, and May 2018.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2023 on the Russian Federation highlights a significant escalation in government repression, particularly following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2023. The Russian authorities have launched an aggressive campaign to suppress civic activism, independent journalism, and political dissent, ostensibly to mute opposition to the war and any criticism of the government. This includes the adoption of wide-ranging bills introducing war censorship with severe penalties for various acts, such as referring to the conflict in Ukraine as a "war" or criticizing the invasion​.

The UN News article titled "Human rights in Russia: ‘Significant deterioration’" reports on the deteriorating human rights situation in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. Mariana Katzarova, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Russia, presented these findings to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Key points include:

The requested document, "RUSSIA 2017 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT," is a comprehensive report detailing various human rights issues in Russia as of 2017. It covers a wide range of topics including political repression, freedom of speech, assembly, and association, treatment of minorities, and conditions in detention facilities.

The Human Rights Watch report titled "Russia: War's Supersized Repression," published on January 12, 2023, provides a detailed analysis of the escalation of repression in Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The report covers various aspects of this crackdown, including censorship laws, suppression of dissent, and discriminatory legislation.

The article on Gulagu.net details a presentation given by Vladimir Osechkin, a human rights activist and founder of Gulagu.net, before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Osechkin testified about the systematic nature of torture and human rights abuses in Russian prisons and other institutions. He and his team presented over 700 gigabytes and more than 115,000 files containing evidence of systematic torture in institutions of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) and Federal Security Service (FSB). The evidence included cases of torture, humiliation, rape, murder, and inhumane treatment of detainees, defendants, and convicts.

The situation regarding systematic torture and inhumane prison conditions in Russia, as per the 2017 report, is quite grave. According to a Deutsche Welle (DW) article from 2022, there are numerous accounts of torture and severe mistreatment in Russian prisons. These abuses are not isolated incidents but rather suggest a systemic problem within the Russian penitentiary system.