The 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council is still going on. Today, Mariana Katsarova, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, presented her third report on the human rights situation in Russia since the start of the war.
These reports are one of the few ways to let the international community know about the changes happening in Russia. «Connection e.V.», together with a Russian coalition of human rights organizations working to assist conscientious objectors, submitted all of its materials for 2024 to the Special Rapporteur back in February.
Here are the main points included in the section of the report on the right to conscientious objection:
⸻ since 2022, more than 50,000 Russian soldiers have deserted ⸻ almost 10% of all troops in Ukraine; more than 16,000 have been prosecuted, and in 2024 alone, 13,500 military personnel were convicted;
⸻ torture, beatings, starvation, and “torture pits” are used to “maintain discipline”; even wounded soldiers are punished for refusing to fight;
⸻ following the 2024 amendments, prisoners and suspects are offered reduced sentences in exchange for military contracts; since 2022, around 200,000 prisoners have been recruited, leading to the closure of almost 80 prisons;
⸻ veterans returning from the front are committing new crimes: by February 2025, 750 people had been killed or maimed;
⸻ the Russian Ministry of Defense denies reports of missing persons, but the Red Cross has registered 110,000 cases of missing soldiers;
⸻ foreign citizens, including victims of human trafficking from Nepal and Sri Lanka, are also being recruited into the Russian army;
⸻ the policy of forcing conscripts to sign military contracts continues, allowing them to be sent to the front lines.
At the open session, as in 2024, Belarus, Eritrea, Sudan, Mali, and Zimbabwe opposed the report and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. The main argument boils down to the fact that the reports are prepared without the participation of the affected party ⸻ Russia. At the same time, Russia has refused to communicate with the special rapporteur for the third year in a row.