The event at the UN headquarters, where human rights defenders and activists from Chechnya spoke, was organized with the support of the Luxembourg Mission. Chechnya: Persecution and torture of sexual minorities Human Rights
Maksim Lapunov was captured in the spring of 2017 in Chechnya. Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, Lapunov described how he was beaten for 12 days, demanding that he name other people in Chechnya who belong to sexual minorities. According to him, for many years he had been plagued by ailments such as tremors, stuttering and convulsions. He admitted that even today, recalling the days spent in prison, he finds it difficult to cope with his emotions.
Russian activists at the UN
Maxim is one of the many Russian civil society activists who were brought to the UN by Mariana Katsarova, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia, for an event organized with the support of the Luxembourg Mission to the UN. Let us recall that this week Katsarova presented her new report to the UN General Assembly on torture in the Russian Federation, which we reported on earlier. The situation in Chechnya is part of this document.
Maxim was helped to leave Chechnya by the non-governmental organization “Crisis Group North Caucasus SOS” and other NGOs, including the Russian “Team Against Torture” – it was represented at the UN event by human rights activist Olga Sadovskaya. With the support of these same organizations, Lapunov appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which last year recognized him as a victim of torture related to his sexual orientation.
Torture and persecution
David Iteyev, head of the North Caucasus SOS Crisis Group, speaking at the UN at the invitation of Special Rapporteur Katsarova, said that his organization was created in 2017 in response to mass repressions against representatives of sexual minorities in Chechnya.
In 2022, the organization filed three statements about crimes and 20 appeals to law enforcement agencies regarding police and domestic violence against LGBT people. “No investigations were conducted, no criminal cases were opened,” Iteyev noted.
According to the data presented in Katsarova’s report, LGBT representatives were persecuted by the Chechen police and security forces, often with the participation of local authorities. People, writes Spetsdokladachik, were held incommunicado, without any charges, in secret detention centers, including in the Chechen villages of Argun and Tsotsi-Yurt, where they were tortured to obtain information about other LGBT people.
“Torture methods included electric shocks, beatings with metal pipes and batons, simulated drowning, as well as rape and sexual violence. Some said they were forced to beat or torture other prisoners with electric shocks. No one received medical care while in custody,” the report says.
Kill to ‘clear the family’s name’
Sometimes members of sexual minorities were released, Katsarova notes, and handed over to their relatives, who were then offered the opportunity to kill the person who “defamed the family’s name” with complete impunity.
“Unfortunately, the laws of Sharia there [in Chechnya] are higher than the laws of the Russian Federation,” David Iteyev emphasized. Moreover, according to him, people who support their children who have fallen under the wheel of repression because of their sexual orientation and help them leave Chechnya are themselves subject to punishment. “Entire families are being persecuted for this assistance,” the NGO director said. “People can be deprived of their pensions, people can be deprived of benefits, some relatives were also tortured in basements.”
Read also:
“Torture in Russia as an Instrument of Repression within the Country and Aggression Abroad”: a new report by Special Rapporteur Mariana Katsarova
“A Testing Ground for Human Rights Violations”
Public figure Svetlana Gannushkina, declared a foreign agent in Russia, called Chechnya “a testing ground for human rights violations.” “Torture and bombings that destroyed entire cities were tried there. And now we see how this is being repeated in Ukraine,” Gannushkina noted.
According to her, today what is happening in Chechnya is spreading to other regions – Dagestan and Ingushetia. The rights of not only LGBT people are violated, but also those of girls and women, as well as those who are sent against their will to fight in Ukraine, Gannushkina added.
Deportations from Western Countries
“When these people manage to escape to Europe or the United States, we are faced with the fact that they are deported back,” Gannushkina said.
“It is very important for me to tell you today that not only is there no law in Chechnya, but there is no law in relation to Chechens either,” she said. – If a Russian citizen is deported from any Western country to Russia, he cannot settle wherever he wants… there is an agreement between the border service and the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs… the person is handed over from hand to hand to Chechen law enforcement agencies.” And there, the human rights activist continued, the returned fugitives, both men and women, receive “enormous, severe punishments.”
In her report, Mariana Katsarova calls on the Russian authorities to “unequivocally condemn discrimination against LGBT people and ensure the protection of the rights of such people, especially in the North Caucasus.” She also calls for an end to the “practice of kidnapping, torture, blackmail and illegal detention” and for all those guilty of committing such acts to be held accountable. The full version of the report in Russian is here.
UN independent experts, as a reminder, are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. They are not UN employees and do not receive a salary from the organization for their work.