Human Rights in Russia and the deaths of Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov:  Joint Statement to the OSCE, February 2025
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-27)

UK and others commemorate Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov and call on Russia to release political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.

Thank you Mr Chair. I am making this statement on behalf of Albania, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and my own country the United Kingdom.

Following the anniversary of Alexei Navalny’s death, which followed years of arbitrary detention in poor conditions, we extend our condolences to his family and reiterate that the ultimate responsibility for his death lies with the Russian authorities. Today we also commemorate Boris Nemtsov, ten years after his brutal murder.

We regret that Russia’s dire human rights record continues to deteriorate. The Russian government crushes peaceful dissent, maintains a climate of fear and undermines the rule of law. This stands in direct contradiction to shared OSCE principles and commitments on inter alia the right to a fair trial, freedom from arbitrary detention, the right to freedom of assembly and association and the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

As we reflect on Navalny and Nemtsov’s enduring legacy, our countries continue to stand with civil society and human rights defenders working tirelessly to build a better future for Russia in the face of immense personal risk.

In July 2022, 38 participating States invoked the Moscow Mechanism on threats to the fulfilment of the provisions of the Human Dimension posed by human rights violations and abuses in the Russian Federation. That Moscow Mechanism report determined that: “a decade of reform legislation in Russia has completely changed the scope of action of Russian civil society, cutting it off from foreign and international partners, suppressing independent initiatives, stifling critical attitudes towards the authorities, silencing the media and suppressing political opposition”.

Such internal clampdowns on human rights and fundamental freedoms helped the Russian Federation prepare the ground for its war of aggression against Ukraine. Since February 2022 the Russian authorities have further tightened internal repression in an apparent attempt to silence all opposition voices. There are now over 800 political prisoners in Russia, including many imprisoned for speaking out against Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the brutality shown towards the Ukrainian people.

In this context we regret Russia’s lack of response to the Vienna Mechanism of March 2024 on treatment of prisoners. We also recall the 11 October 2024 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation which inter alia examined the widespread and systematic use of torture and ill treatment in the Russian Federation.

We reiterate our call to the Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all political opposition activists, human rights defenders, journalists and other media actors.

We will continue to hold Russia to account against its international obligations and commitments on human rights and fundamental freedoms, including OSCE principles and commitments to which it signed up willingly.

For as we all agreed in Moscow in 1990, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law constitutes one of the foundations of the international order. And as we also agreed in Moscow, commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned.

Thank you, Mr Chair.