Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation Mariana Katsarova. UN Human Rights Council extends mandate of Special Rapporteur on Russia for one year Human Rights
Delegates to the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation. The document extends the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia for another year.
The resolution, submitted by the delegation of Luxembourg on behalf of a number of countries, was supported by 20 states, 19 abstained from voting and 8 – Burundi, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Vietnam – voted against.
The document welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia, Mariana Katsarova, and expresses regret that she is not allowed to enter the country. The authors of the resolution call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms, including by granting the Special Rapporteur permission to enter and access people in detention.
The Council initially adopted a resolution establishing the position of Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia on 7 October 2022. At the UN HRC meeting in Geneva, 17 Council member states voted in favor of the resolution, six voted against, and 24 states abstained.
The co-sponsors of the resolution, 42 UN member states, motivated their initiative by the constant deterioration of the human rights situation in Russia, which worsened after 24 February 2022, when the Russian armed forces entered the territory of Ukraine.
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Mariana Katsarova, an independent expert from Bulgaria, began her work as the first UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation on 1 May 2023.
In In 2021–22, she led the team established by the UN Human Rights Council to examine the human rights situation in Belarus. During the first two years of the armed conflict in Ukraine (2014–2016), Katsarova led the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Donbas as head of the regional office in eastern Ukraine. For a decade, she led Amnesty International’s investigations into the human rights situation in Russia, including the two Chechen conflicts.
The Human Rights Council appoints independent UN experts to examine specific country situations or global thematic issues. Such experts are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary from the UN for their work.