Human Rights Watch and International Partnership for Human Rights have prepared a submission for the third cycle review of Russia in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). It covers a period of unprecedented deterioration in human rights protections in Russia, which began in May 2012 and intensified in the wake of the 2014 events in Ukraine. The submission includes information about new laws and measures that:
- stigmatize many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and restrict their work;
- impose new restrictions on free assembly and harsher penalties for violators, resulting in the detention of hundreds of peaceful protesters;
- stigmatize and discriminate against LGBT people;
- impede freedom of expression and information, and are transforming Russia’s online media landscape to place it under greater state control;
- have been used to imprison people on politically motivated prosecutions, notably with regard to people who criticize Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
The submission describes a fierce human rights crackdown in Chechnya. It also describes human rights violations by Russian authorities in Crimea, which Russia has been occupying since 2014. Finally, the submission includes information about domestic violence, interference with freedom of religion, the rights of construction workers on World Cup construction sites, and the rights of people with disabilities.