On 22 September 2025, at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, presented a report on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federatio
A joint statement of the Baltic states and Nordic countries was delivered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir.
Main conclusions of the Special Rapporteur report:
- The human rights situation has been steadily deteriorating. Russian authorities have pursued a deliberate strategy to wipe out dissent through intensified censorship, politically motivated prosecutions, and the expansion of legislation on “foreign agents” and “undesirables”. Journalists, human rights defenders, opposition figures and activists have faced imprisonment, torture and long prison sentences, while civic space has been systematically and purposefully destroyed.
- The Russian authorities have dismantled institutional independence, bringing the judiciary, legislature and law enforcement under direct political control. Public institutions have been transformed into instruments of repression and war.
- The State’s strategy of repression within the Russian Federation itself sustains aggression abroad and continuing impunity. Accountability and justice, and the release of all Ukrainian civilian detainees, Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war, deported Ukrainian children and all Russian political prisoners, must inform any peace talks and process.
- The continuing widespread and systematic recourse to torture and ill-treatment by Russian law enforcement officials, security forces, penitentiary officials and members of the armed forces is endemic. Health professionals are also participating in and condoning the most abhorrent torture, especially of Ukrainian detainees.
The report also reveals that:
- 1,040 individuals and organizations have been designated as “foreign agents”;
- 245 organizations have been designated as “undesirable”, including six organizations founded by Russians in exile and international organisations such as Reporters without Borders International, Amnesty International, the British Council, Yale University, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, as well as 195 media outlets;
- designation has begun of independent media as “terrorist organizations”;
- with 50 media professionals imprisoned, the Russia has become the third-largest jailer of journalists in the world; at least 23 journalists were sentenced for reporting about the war waged by Russia against Ukraine;
- at least 912 individuals were prosecuted on politically motivated grounds;
- repression of cultural figures has intensified, at least 41 such figures were in detention;
- over 1.2 million Internet resources are banned;
- messaging applications Signal and Viber are blocked, WhatsApp and another 11 messaging applications were ordered to store user data and share it with Russian law enforcement;
- at least 258 cases of torture by law enforcement, prison staff, and inmates acting under orders of prison authorities were documented;
- 51 individuals have been subjected to coercive psychiatric measures.
Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation.
See the presentation of the report and a discussion live from Geneva on the website at: webtv.un.org (starting from the 14th minute).
The UN Human Rights Council established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation in October 2022.
The Special Rapporteur’s mandate comprises the following: to monitor and report on human rights issues within the country; to collect, examine and assess relevant information on human rights from all relevant stakeholders, including Russian civil society both inside and outside the country; to make recommendation on the protection and respect of human rights, to cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms; and to present a report to the UN Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly.