Submission by Human Rights Watch on Russia to Human Rights Committee

This submission aims to contribute to the Human Rights Committee’s (“the Committee”) upcoming review of the Russian Federation’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR” or “the Covenant”). It focuses on the following key areas of concern – (1) rights to freedom of association and of expression, notably the Russian government’s unprecedented crackdown on civil society through the use of repressive “foreign agents” and “undesirables” legislation, as well as its abuse of counterterrorism and anti-extremism laws to retaliate against critics, and criminalization of defamation; (2) right to privacy, freedom of expression and access to information online, through a raft of new laws and regulations encroaching on expression online and escalating government pressure on social media platforms to censor certain online content; (3) right to privacy, through invasive, government-endorsed software used in online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic; (4) equality and non-discrimination in the context of migration, including new amendments to Russia’s migration law, and; (5) egregious violations in Chechnya, including arbitrary detention, torture, collective punishment, public humiliation, and other abuses against a range of individuals whom local authorities view as “undesirable.”