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OSCE Permanent Council 1417 Vienna, 30 March 2023

30.03.2023
Vienna
Press and information team of the Delegation to UN and OSCE in Vienna

EU statement on the Current Issue to be raised by the US on the “Human Rights Situation in Russia”

  1. As Russia continues its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, the situation of Russia’s civil society is deteriorating. The situation is particularly serious for the growing number of political prisoners: held in inhumane conditions, which violate international human rights standards, their health is rapidly deteriorating. Many of those arbitrarily detained are being denied access to basic medical care, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, Alexandra Skochilenko and Alexey Navalny. Maria Ponomarenko has been subjected to inhumane treatment while serving her sentence and numerous others, including Yuri Dmitriev, Ilya Yashin, Andrei Pivovarov, Ivan Safronov, Dmitry Skurikhin, Dmitry Ivanov and Alexei Gorinov remain unjustly imprisoned.
  2. As highlighted in the August 2022 report under the Moscow Mechanism, harsher punishments and an extensive application of the entire array of repressive legislation since 2012 laid the ground for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The report confirmed the connection between the repression on the inside and the war on the outside. Recent examples include the labelling of Transparency International, the Solidarus NGO, and the Institute of Statecraft NGO as so-called “undesirable organisations”, the request to close the Sova NGO, as well as the police raids and criminal cases unjustly made against representatives of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate “Memorial”. These actions by the Russian authorities represent yet another step in the persecution of independent and critical voices in Russian society.
  3. Individual citizens are also frequently targeted, as seen in the case of Alexey Moskalyov, and his 12-year-old daughter Masha who made a pro-peace drawing. The EU stands in full solidarity with all Russians who have dared to raise their voices and criticise Russia’s brutal war of aggression, and who have been detained, prosecuted or imprisoned for doing so.
  4. We urge the Russian authorities to release all those unjustly detained and imprisoned and to stop the crackdown on civil society, independent journalists, media actors and human rights defenders. Russia must respect the rule of law, its own Constitution, uphold its obligations under international human rights law, and ensure equality before and by the law.

The Candidate Countries NORTH MACEDONIA*, MONTENEGRO*, ALBANIA*,

UKRAINE, the REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA, and BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA*, as well

as MONACO align themselves with this statement.



* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to

be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.