The COVID-19 pandemic exposed chronic under-resourcing in health care. The authorities used the pandemic as a pretext to continue the crackdown on all dissent, including through amendments to a vaguely worded law on “fake news” and tightening restrictions on public gatherings. Peaceful protesters,...

Amnesty International has today launched its global website as an .onion site on the Tor network, giving users greater access to its ground-breaking work exposing and documenting human rights violations in areas where government censorship and digital surveillance are rife. In recent years, a...

In response to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Russia recognizing the “international public LGBT movement” as “extremist,” and effectively outlawing any public LGBTI-related activity, Marie Struthers, Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, said: “This shameful and...

Reacting to the news that Russia’s Ministry of Justice has initiated proceedings to legally recognize the “international public LGBT movement” as extremist and ban its activities in the country, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “This is a...

Responding to the news that Aleksandra Skochilenko has been convicted of “disseminating knowingly false information about the Russian Armed Forces” and sentenced to seven years in prison for replacing price tags with anti-war messages in a Saint Petersburg supermarket, Marie Struthers, Amnesty...

Responding to the forcible disappearance of Ukrainian human rights defender and prisoner of war Maksym Butkevych, whose whereabouts were last confirmed on 22 August, Amnesty International’s acting Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Director, Denis Krivosheev, said: “It has been eleven weeks...

The Russian authorities must promptly investigate a threat made against the lives of prominent human rights lawyer Magomed Alamov and his family and provide them with effective protection, said Amnesty International. On 23 October, Magomed Alamov, who works for the non-governmental organization...

In response to the news that Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Tatar-Bashkir Service, has been arrested and arbitrarily detained on remand under criminal charges of failing to register as a ‘foreign agent,’ Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director...

Reacting to the arrest of three of Aleksei Navalny’s lawyers on charges of “participation in an extremist organization”, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Deputy Director, Denis Krivosheev, said: “As part of their ongoing vendetta against Aleksei Navalny, the Russian...

Ahead of the conclusion of the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in which member states will decide whether to establish a human rights monitoring mechanism in Sudan and extend human rights reporting in Russia, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior...

A new history textbook which, amongst other things, justifies Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine as a legitimate act of self-defence and violates children’s rights to appropriate and quality education, is a dangerous attempt to indoctrinate future generations, Amnesty International said today....

An appeal hearing at a Moscow court on Tuesday (22 August) which has upheld the 13-year sentence imposed on Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender, is a grave miscarriage of justice Amnesty International said today. The decision to imprison him for 13 years was taken by the so-called...

Responding to the news that Aleksei Navalny, a prisoner of conscience and a leading figure in Russia’s political opposition movement, has been sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony on trumped-up “extremism”-related charges, adding at least 10 years to his current 9-year prison term, Marie...