blog.amnestyusa.org

I first experienced the value of political freedom in the 2004 Orange Revolution protests in Kyiv, Ukraine. I was only seven years old then, yet I quickly caught inspiration for the rapidly evolving ‘PORA’ and ‘Tak!’ movements and the revolution

What George Orwell once fantasized in his novel ‘1984,’ is an actual threat today. Individuals are confronted with surveillance that interferes with private lives, and human rights

In Amnesty International’s Fast-Track to Torture: Abductions and Forcible Returns from Russia to Uzbekistan, published in April 2016, research found that hundreds of asylum-seekers, refugees and labor migrants have been abducted or forcibly returned from Russia to Uzbekistan since 2014 in total violation of Russia’s international human rights obligations. In at least three recent cases of abduction and forcible return from Russia to Uzbekistan since March 2015 (Davron Komoliddinov in March 2015, Sarvar Mardiev in March 2016 and Olim Ochilov in July 2016), the individuals were not apprised of their right to apply for State protection, even though they, their legal representatives and human rights organisations had expressed a “perceived risk of irregular removal. * Fully and systematically ensure that no one within the Russian Federation’s jurisdiction is forcibly returned, by means of extradition or otherwise, to any country, including Uzbekistan, where they would be at risk of torture or other ill-treatment as well as unfair trials or any other serious human rights violations, and set up transparent and effective monitoring mechanisms to ensure compliance with such measures; * Stop automatically detaining and deporting individuals, including asylum-seekers, who have been declared “undesirable aliens” to their country of origin, including Uzbekistan, without assessing in earnest the risk of torture upon return and refrain from their forcible return where the risk exists, and establish an effective mechanism whereby an individual declared an “undesirable alien” is granted the right to appeal the decision to deport; * Fully and systematically comply in practice with all Rule 39 interim measures and judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, in particular in relation to cases of return and extradition.

Amnesty International recently released a public statement raising the worsening human rights situation in Crimea marking three years under Russian rule since the Peninsula’s unlawful annexation in March 2014. Despite Amnesty’s call for human rights in last year’s briefing ‘Crimea in the dark: the silencing of dissent’, Russian and Crimean de facto authorities continue to intensify their persecution of political activists, dissenting voices, and ethnic Crimean Tatars