On 28 October 2026 Ana Carmo reported on an event organised by the Permanent Mission of Greece, gender equality agency UN Women, and the UN education and culture agency, UNESCO,Every Voice for Peace Counts: New Perspectives on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.
“Every woman journalist driven out of a conflict zone is a peace process that loses its witness,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, addressing the United Nations this week. Ms. Ressa, who has faced arrest, legal cases and sustained online attacks, reiterated how intimidation can wear down journalists’ credibility and confidence, threaten their safety and ultimately kill their determination to continue reporting. At the height of the attacks against her, she received 90 hate messages an hour
Artificial intelligence is adding to the threat, enabling deepfakes, fabricated sexual images, cloned voices and coordinated attacks to spread at scale.
According to UN Women data, nearly one in four women human rights defenders, activists and journalists reported experiencing AI-enabled abuse which in time can manifest as physical violence.
Recent research highlights how online attacks – once dismissed as “virtual” problems – are now spilling offline, affecting women’s safety, well-being, and ability to participate freely in public debate.
Ms. Ressa called for online violence to be treated as such, arguing for stronger accountability for perpetrators and technology companies that amplify abuse, sustained funding for women-led journalism, and the inclusion of women journalists in peace and security discussions.
Protecting women journalists is not only about individual safety. It is also about whose experiences of conflict are documented, whose voices shape public understanding and whose contributions to peace are recognised.
“When women journalists are silenced, the women whose stories they are telling are also silenced,” said UN Women Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination, and Programme Results, Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda. “So, it’s not just the silencing of the journalists, it’s the silencing of our collective story.”
Women in conflict settings are often portrayed as victims, she noted, despite their roles in preventing violence, mediating disputes, sustaining communities and rebuilding societies. When their experiences go unreported, the public sees only part of the reality of war, “half of the picture of peace”.
The scale of the problem is stark. According to a recent study by UN Women and UNESCO, 75 per cent of women journalists surveyed had experienced online violence. Forty-two per cent linked online attacks to abuse or assault in the physical world, up from 20 per cent in 2020.
International frameworks for protecting journalists already exist. Yet women journalists continue to face physical violence, legal harassment, psychological trauma and online campaigns designed to discredit their reporting.
The 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is collectively awarded to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its officials.
Announcing the 2026 laureate in the hemicycle on Thursday, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola declared: “The European Union is built on respect for multilateralism and international institutions. With the award of the Sakharov prize to the International Criminal Court and its officials, the European Parliament recognises the Court’s important work in upholding international law and justice.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
The Court is a crucial actor in the global fight to end impunity, and through international criminal justice, it aims to hold those responsible accountable for their crimes and to help prevent these crimes from happening again. As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement national courts. Governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal court.
In Parliament’s 2025 annual reports on the implementation of the common Foreign and Security Policy and on the human rights and democracy in the world, MEPs expressed their deep concern at the growing threats and the various waves of sanctions imposed since 2025 on the ICC, notably by the USA, as well as on its prosecutors, judges, staff and partners, considering these to be serious attacks on the international justice system.
MEPs have repeatedly called on the European Commission to activate the EU’s so-called ‘blocking statute’ to protect officials working at the ICC from extraterritorial attacks, and to enable it to continue its activities in complete independence. The blocking statute protects European operators, regardless of their size or sector of activity, by nullifying within the EU the effect of any foreign judicial decision based on foreign laws, also enabling them to seek compensation in court for damages caused by the extraterritorial application of foreign laws.
Enforced disappearances are reaching alarming levels worldwide, while human rights defenders face increasing persecution and surveillance, United Nations experts warned the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on 20 October 2026 citing thousands of unresolved cases and growing threats to those seeking justice and accountability.
Andrea Bolaños Vargas, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, warned that criminalization has become the most prevalent global threat facing those who expose abuses and defend fundamental freedoms. Presenting findings from a survey of 1,122 respondents, she reported that 66 per cent of women human rights defenders believed their situation had deteriorated, rising to 78 per cent among LGBTIQ+ women defenders. Three quarters said restrictive laws and regulations had undermined their work.
“Criminalization is combined with disinformation and stigmatization, surveillance, arbitrary detention, administrative restrictions, funding restrictions, digital attacks, and in some cases, violence against defenders themselves, as well as their families,” she said. Such threats extend even to regions with long-standing democratic traditions. “The human cost is enormous,” she stressed, reporting that 83 per cent of survey respondents experienced negative effects on their mental health. Nearly half of the women human rights defenders surveyed reported having to leave their homes to seek safety, with 24 per cent internally displaced and 22 per cent forced into exile.
…The Czech Republic’s representative highlighted the imprisonment of human rights defenders in Belarus and the Russian Federation, drawing attention to Ukrainian activists Iryna Danylovych and Amet Suleymanov, held in Russian Federations prisons without adequate medical care.
Germany’s delegate urged Moscow to release two Indigenous human rights defenders and called on China to free Hong Kong lawyer Chow Hang Tung.
Rejecting the criticism, China’s representative accused Germany of spreading “smears”. “Some countries and political forces seek to portray criminals as human rights defenders to whitewash their unlawful and criminal conduct,” he said.
Belarus’s delegate dismissed the Czech Republic’s allegations concerning medical care for detainees, insisting that free healthcare is available to all, including prisoners. The Russian Federation’s representative, meanwhile, accused Ukraine and the Baltic States of persecuting those defending Russian-speaking populations, citing the arrest of Latvian activist Viktor Gushchin.
The European Union’s representative, speaking in its capacity as observer, warned that growing fear and self-censorship among people cooperating with United Nations human rights mechanisms represents “a substantive loss to us all”, expressing concern over technology-facilitated transnational repression….
On 20 October 2026, a large number of UN special rapporteurs and experts as well as 4 important NGOs called on India to end the crackdown on peaceful protests and release arbitrarily detained protesters.
Alarmed by a repeatedly heavy-handed police response to peaceful youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi and other parts of the country over the past three months, UN experts and international NGOs ca;;ed on Indian authorities to respect, protect and fulfil the right to peacefully protest, and ensure justice for human rights violations reported during these and previous protests.
“This crackdown reflects a broader, troubling pattern,” the experts said. “We have repeatedly alerted the Indian authorities to undue restrictions on peaceful assembly, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and the targeting of student activists, amongst others.” In March, 10 student and labour-rights activists were reportedly detained in New Delhi by plain-clothes police officers, held incommunicado for more than 24 hours, and allegedly subjected to ill-treatment, threats, coercion and forced declarations, before being released following habeas corpus proceedings.
Over the last months, hundreds of thousands of students and their supporters have been gathering peacefully to protest in different parts of the country against Government decisions regarding the education system, and more recently, voter-roll deletions which affect 130 million individuals, reportedly belonging to the Muslim minority, Scheduled Castes and Tribes. “Despite the non-violent nature of the assemblies, law enforcement agencies have reportedly deployed force against unarmed students, including lathi charges and have prevented thousands from joining the protests,” the experts said.
The experts raised concerns over reports that Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) – or India’s criminal procedure code – has been invoked to impose broad bans on public gatherings, suspend public transportation and execute internet shutdowns.
“We call on the authorities to immediately cease the use of excessive force, rescind blanket assembly bans, and refrain from the misuse of digital surveillance, including through biometrics, and internet disruptions.” The experts called for an independent, impartial, and thorough investigation into the conduct of law enforcement and affiliated forces to be launched without delay to ensure full accountability, justice, and victims’ reparations.
Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Front Line Defenders and South Asians for Human Rights also call on the Indian authorities to release everyone arbitrarily detained for the exercise of their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and ensure accountability for abuses by security forces.
On 10 October 2026, protests were called by the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and backed by student groups calling for the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner of India, following reports that the nationwide Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls by the election commission removed around 130 million names from voter lists.
Arbitrary detentions continued on 11 October and there were reports of physical attacks by police on protesters in detention. Many women protesters and journalists accused security personnel of sexual harassment while detaining them during the protests.Right-wing vigilante groups were also seen threatening and assaulting protesters and journalists. Some of them harassed Muslim women journalists while they were covering the protests.
Nearly 40 journalists were detained over the two days. Some of them were physically assaulted, intimidated, and had their camera and mobile phones seized or destroyed despite showing their press identity cards. A group of lawyers who carried out a rally near the Supreme Court in support of protesters also faced unlawful force by police and some were detained briefly.
Instagram accounts of the news outlets Molitics and Journo Mirror have been blocked in India during its coverage of the protests citing Information Technology Rules.
On 10 October authorities also ordered a 24-hour mobile internet shutdown in central Delhi. Mobile internet was also reportedly blocked at eight stadiums used as detention centres, cutting detainees off from their lawyers and families. Reports also suggest that the shutdown was taking place beyond areas of protests and detention.
People around the world continue to pay a steep price for cooperating with the United Nations on human rights, facing persistent intimidation and reprisals amid disturbing trends in transnational repression and digital surveillance targeting civil society actors, a UN report published on 16 September 2026 finds. The report urges States to refrain from any acts of intimidation and reprisals, ensure accountability for violations and abuses, and protect those who engage with the UN.
The UN Secretary-General’s report on reprisals documents cases involving human rights defenders, victims of human rights violations and abuses, journalists, lawyers and trade unionists who were targeted by State or non-State actors for cooperating, or seeking to cooperate, with the UN on human rights between 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026. It covers 32 States*.
The report is not meant to be exhaustive, as many victims refrain from reporting violations or abuses for fear of retaliation. Others chose not to have their cases included or agreed to only do so on condition of anonymity, because of the serious risk of further reprisals.
“Speaking up for human rights should never come at the expense of one’s own personal safety and security. Shrinking civic space and increased surveillance online and offline are fuelling a hostile climate that hinders civil society’s cooperation with the UN and its human rights mechanisms,” said Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio, who leads the UN system’s efforts to address reprisals.
“No one should be forced to choose between their right to cooperate with the UN and their own safety or that of their families and communities,” she added. “Safeguarding our engagement with civil society is not only fundamental to the rights of individuals; it is also essential to the UN’s ability to fulfil its mandate and respond effectively to the needs of the people it serves.”
The report shows a growing trend of transnational repression, in which civil society actors are targeted beyond the borders of their own countries. Documented acts include arbitrary detention, physical attacks, surveillance, threats, online harassment, movement restrictions, confiscation of passports, and intimidation of family members, affecting at least 43 individuals and four organisations.
Digital technologies are increasingly being used to monitor, intimidate and silence those seeking to engage with international human rights mechanisms, underscoring the urgency of strengthening protections for those engaging with the UN in digital spaces.
Continued misuse of legislation, including counterterrorism, cybercrime and national security laws and regulations, remains a concern. More than half of the States mentioned in the report have applied, enacted or amended laws that criminalized or further restricted core civil society activities.
“It is particularly alarming and entirely unacceptable that young activists, women, environmental defenders and Indigenous Peoples reportedly continue to face heightened risks of being targeted for exercising their rights to engage with the UN and stand up for their communities, lands and environment,” said the Assistant Secretary-General.
The report also documents attempts to obstruct civil society participation in UN fora, including by seeking to block or delay accreditation, as well as harassment of participants on UN premises themselves. It also refers to attacks directed at independent human rights experts – including Special Procedures mandate holders, and the wider chilling effect these actions risk having on individuals and organizations seeking to cooperate with the UN.
At the same time, the Secretary-General’s report highlights important efforts across the United Nations system and by Member States to address these issues. It includes initiatives to support safe and meaningful participation of human rights defenders and other civil society on UN premises and measures to strengthen prevention, protection and accountability for reprisals.
* The 32 States referred to in the report are:
Afghanistan; Algeria; Bahrain; Belarus; Burundi; Cameroon; China; Costa Rica; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Egypt; Equatorial Guinea; France; Germany; Guatemala; Guinea-Bissau; India; Iran (Islamic Republic of); Israel; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Libya; Nicaragua; Pakistan; Russian Federation; Saudi Arabia; Sri Lanka; South Sudan; Thailand; Turkmenistan; Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of); Viet Nam; Yemen; State of Palestine.
re Vietnam: Yesterday I posted about a recent case.
UN human rights experts released a landmark statement urging States, businesses, INTERPOL and international organisations to prevent and combat the spread of transnational repression, warning of its increasing impacts on human rights, democracy and the rule of law and those who take action to defend them. Over one hundred UN Special Procedures mandate holders and members of Treaty Bodies (full list below) adopted a landmark statement calling for a decisive international response to the increasing use of transnational repression by States as a tool to silence activism across borders. ‘An unprecedented number of UN experts made it clear today that any response to transnational repression should be strongly anchored in human rights obligations. Not only should governments hold perpetrators accountable, they should also proactively adopt laws and policies that centre the needs of victims, in particular at-risk diasporas and those in exile.’Raphaël Viana David, ISHR Senior Advocacy Manager ‘Transnational repression represents a growing challenge to the international human rights system and to the principles of the Charter of the UN itself,’ signatories said in their appeal, which provided a roadmap of measures to prevent and respond to transnational repression, and better assist and protect those targeted. ‘By creating fear across borders, transnational repression has profound consequences not only for those directly targeted, their families and communities, but also for civil society action, democratic principles, civic space, refugee protection, independent journalism and media freedom,’ the experts stressed, warning that this threatens the ability of individuals and groups to ‘promote, protect and defend human rights, and to engage safely with national, regional and international human rights mechanisms’, including at the UN. Arising from a retreat for UN human rights experts convened by ISHR in June, this joint statement comes a week after the UN Human Rights Council’s first dedicated dialogue on the issue of transnational repression, and arbitrary detention and amid broader efforts by the UN human rights system to address growing acts of transnational repression targeting those who engage with the UN. These efforts include statements and resolutions at the Human Rights Council, and a first brief by the UN Human Rights Office. Transnational repression tactics, the experts said, include extrajudicial killings, torture, harassment, arbitrary detention, travel bans, expulsions, deprivation of nationality, misuse of international law enforcement mechanisms, including INTERPOL Red Notices, intimidation of family members and associates, and more. Signatories flagged the ‘increasingly digital nature of transnational repression’, including through the use of social media, spyware and malware software, warning that all of these are being amplified by artificial intelligence tools. Signatories urge States to refrain from committing or supporting acts of transnational repression and to develop specific laws and policies to prevent, investigate and punish such acts, including when they don’t amount to a crime under domestic law. This includes directing resources to better track and analyse patterns of transnational repression, including digitally, building the capacity of national authorities across different areas, establishing inter-governmental coordination mechanisms and focal points, and regulating surveillance technologies. Signatories stress the need to combat the misuse of frameworks to counter terrorism and organised crime, to apply additional vetting to INTERPOL Red Notices and Diffusions, and to take into account a country’s transnational repression record when considering bilateral cooperation, agreements, and diplomatic assurances. States must also redouble efforts to protect and assist those being targeted or likely to be in the future, including through efficient reporting channels, adequate protection policies and programmes, psychosocial support, and expedited asylum, resettlement and humanitarian visa processes. Experts also call on other actors, including international organisations and businesses – to be wary of transnational repression and of their responsibilities in preventing it. Businesses, in particular tech companies, should conduct due diligence and strengthen privacy and data protection. INTERPOL should also step up efforts to tackle the misuse of Notices, Diffusions, and other mechanisms, including by cooperating with civil society and relevant States. ‘Powerful human rights abusers will not let a border stop them from quashing dissent. At a time when more States are pushing human rights defence into exile, the UN and all States who care about upholding human rights must heed the experts’ call and take action to protect those who seek refuge or engage in critique or dissent abroad.’Raphael Viana David The latest annual report by the UN Secretary-General on acts of reprisals against individuals seeking to cooperate with the UN cites 32 States. Of these, 13 States are cited for acts of transnational repression, affecting at least 43 individuals and four organisations. ‘Allegations of transnational repression across borders seemed to be on the rise, with examples from all regions, some enabled by the misuse of digital technologies,’ the report noted in its conclusions. ‘Transnational repression can cripple key accountability efforts at the UN and leave the global human rights system blind and deaf. States must ensure human rights defenders and activists who seek justice at the UN are safe from the long reach of abusive governments both while engaging with its mechanisms and afterwards.’Madeleine Sinclair, director of ISHR’s office in New York. ISHR has long campaigned to denounce reprisals against those engaging with the UN, and for the UN and States to ensure that human rights defenders and civil society organisations can safely cooperate with human rights experts and mechanisms. This year, ISHR’s campaign is focused on the impact of transnational repression. ISHR urges States, UN officials, businesses and all stakeholders to follow the recommendations in the statement and take proactive steps to address, prevent and punish acts of transnational repression, to enhance assistance and protection of victims, and to ensure everyone can safely engage with the UN and other international human rights bodies.
A journalist exposes corruption. An Indigenous leader defends their community’s land. An environmental activist raises the alarm on devastating pollution. Then comes a lawsuit. Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are designed to intimidate, exhaust and silence people who speak out on issues that matter to society. On 16 September, UN Human Rights presented a report during the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, examining their impact on human rights.
The report was prepared following a request from the Council in Resolution 56/7 and draws on discussions held during an expert workshop organized on 28 May 2025.
At the expert workshop, a representative of UN Human Rights held that the use of SLAPPs constitutes an abusive instrumentalization of judicial systems. They not only distort the purpose of legal proceedings; they transform courts from instruments of justice into tools of repression.
In their first session of the workshop, centered on the impact of these strategic lawsuits on journalists, journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown spoke from her personal experience. Brown said that she had been the target of multiple strategic lawsuits against public participation, regarding her work on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.
The scandal involved theft and laundering of more than 4.5 billion US dollars from wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad into American financial institutions. The brave reporting led to the conviction of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on money laundering and abuse of power charges in 2022.
Unfortunately, the case also had consequences for the reporters. Two Malaysian business publications were suspended for three months, and two Australian journalists were detained and deported from Malaysia.
She was subject to intimidation by letters which alleged that her reporting amounted to libel, defamation, and an invasion of privacy. In 2017, a lawsuit on her reporting on a Malaysian political party led to lengthy proceedings ultimately depleted her pension and put her family at financial risk.
Her case is a clear example of the use of SLAPPs to suppress the work of investigative journalists, the tense relationship between litigants and media freedoms, and emphasizes a need for reform. Brown was interviewed by UN Human Rights in May 2024, on her experience reporting on environmental violations and corruptions in Malaysia.
Irene Khan, the former Special Rapporteur on promotion and protection of right to freedom of opinion and expression, said these lawsuits occur frequently because they are a subtle form of repression than overt physical attacks. In many cases, they are effective at silencing dissent and often succeed to bankrupt or deter defendants.
Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, agreed that this is a misuse of the legal system predominantly by large corporations: 474 lawsuits have been initiated by private actors since 2015, and 68 percent involved criminal charges.
Satterthwaite outlined recommendations to put an end to this abuse of legislation: Judges must be trained to identify and discuss these lawsuits properly. Bar associations must develop ethical guidance to sanction lawyers who misuse the legal system. States must enact legislation to counter the use of such lawsuits and decriminalize defamation where appropriate.
The expert workshop also examined ways to counter SLAPPs.
Nikhil Dutta, Senior Legal Advisor at the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law, noted that responses designed to counter such lawsuits had been enacted in numerous jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union.
Other approaches to solve these blatant human rights violations outlined in the expert workshop include enacting protections for public participation through legislation, empowering courts to dismiss abusive proceedings, establishing public funds for defense against SLAPPs, and establishing punitive damages on entities that file these lawsuits.
UN Human Rights has released a briefer on SLAPPs, a comprehensive summary of the report and the impact of these lawsuits on human rights, civic space, and victims. It suggests measures that States should take to tackle SLAPPs, including the decriminalization of defamation; the adoption of anti-SLAPPs laws; the possibility for courts to dismiss SLAPPs early; and the need to compensate victims and penalize abusive claimants.
The message is clear: states and others need to make it easy for people to speak up, to influence decisions that affect them, and to hold state institutions accountable. They must do what is in their power to ensure people do not face legal intimidation for defending human rights.
Freedom of expression and opinion is a precious good critical for protecting all human rights, and the law must not become a weapon to silence those who speak out.
More than 450 civil society organizations from 65 countries have called on Turkey to end what they described as the criminalization of the LGBTI+ movement and release people detained solely for human rights work.
In a joint statement on 22 September 2026 titled “Stop the Criminalisation of the LGBTI+ Movement in Turkey,” the groups said human rights advocacy, publishing, organizing, membership, donations, fundraising and lawful domestic or international funding should not be treated as evidence of criminal activity and called for an end to raids and online restrictions targeting LGBTI+ organizations and human rights defenders.
The statement, published by Turkey-based Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR), was signed by organizations including the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), CIVICUS, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA), PEN Norway and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organizations and activists.
The groups objected to what they described as the use of organized-crime provisions and broadly defined concepts such as “obscenity,” “morality” and “family” to criminalize LGBTI+ identities, visibility and advocacy.
The appeal follows a nationwide operation that began September 13 with police raids on LGBTI+ organizations, activists’ homes, gay bars and nightclubs, a day after Turkish authorities restricted access to social media accounts belonging to more than a dozen groups.
Organizations targeted in the investigations include the Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association (Kaos GL), the Families and Friends of LGBTI+ People Association (LİSTAG) and the Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD), as well as several other LGBTI+ and HIV-related groups.
According to Turkish media, 116 people had been detained in the raids and 82 were jailed pending trial. The cases include LGBTI+ activists and members of rights organizations as well as people accused of prostitution, drug offenses and other crimes, meaning not everyone detained or jailed in the operation was accused of activity connected to LGBTI+ advocacy.
Kasmira Jefford on 23 September 2026 in Geneva Solutions discusses the transnational repression by Russia as exposed in Mariana Katzarova’s report to the UN.
Reporting to the Human Rights Council this week on the Kremlin’s widening crackdown on Russian critics overseas, Mariana Katzarova urged states to create a binding international instrument to put a stop to authoritarian governments reaching across borders. Since being appointed special rapporteur on Russia by the Human Rights Council in October 2022 – eight months after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – Mariana Katzarova has reported widely on the Kremlin’s expanding efforts to stifle critics and anti-war voices within its borders.
But her latest report took her into new territory. “Today, I report on how Russia is exporting that rule of fear,” she told members gathered in the Palais des Nations’ Assembly Hall on Monday. The country in question was conspicuously absent.
The Bulgarian human rights expert and former journalist described how Vladimir Putin’s government “has become one of the most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression” by building a state-run system to surveil, intimidate and punish any citizens seen to be voicing dissent abroad.
Drawing on more than 400 documented cases, Katzarova noted these were “not a series of isolated incidents”. “It is the continuation, beyond Russia’s borders, of the same structural, state-sponsored system of repression I have documented at home,” she added.
Her report, she claims, is the first UN country-specific report on transnational repression – a concept for which Katzarova said there is still no universal definition but which she describes as a state reaching beyond its borders to silence political or civic opponents.
In August, Russia introduced a new law imposing sweeping financial, property and consular restrictions on Russians living abroad who have pending convictions, including under legislation used to prosecute critics. “My report calls this civic death, de facto statelessness for people who remain on paper citizens,” she added, calling on Moscow to rescind the law.
Russia declined Geneva Solutions’ request to comment. In a statement issued earlier this month, Moscow’s foreign ministry said its stance was unchanged from previous years. “We do not recognise the mandate of this illegitimate special procedure, and any form of interaction with it is unacceptable to us”.
Several journalists and rights defenders targeted by Russia were also present at the Human Rights Council on Monday to share their testimonies – including Natalia Arno, an exiled Buryat human rights defender, who fell ill in 2023 with suspected poisoning symptoms during a conference visit in Prague.
Arno, who lives in the United States where she founded the Free Russia Foundation, recalls finding her hotel room door open and noticing a strange smell inside. She woke up the next day with sharp dental pain and cancelled the rest of her trip. On the flight back, she said her organs started to fail, and she was rushed to the hospital on arrival.
Arno said US authorities investigating the case couldn’t tell her what happened, claiming it was a matter of national security. However, according to the special rapporteur, she was told informally by a military hospital that was analysing her bloodwork that she had been targeted by a new type of Novichok.
The suspected attack was unlike anything she had experienced before. “This was another eye-opening level, because it seemed like surveillance, cyberattacks – they just wanted some information about us. But to physically attack us, it was something new,” Arno said.
She said that more needed to be done at an international level to raise awareness of transnational repression. “This issue should not only be treated as a human rights issue. It’s definitely a national security issue because it’s also an attack on the sovereignty of your country,” she said as she addressed states in the room.
Roman Dobrokhotov, Russian journalist and editor-in-chief of news platform The Insider, was also at the side event. “You don’t see my name here because of security reasons – I can’t announce in advance when I’m flying to a conference, even if it is a UN event.”
The Kremlin has targeted Dobrokhotov following investigations by his media into the government’s role in a string of deadly incidents, including the poisoning of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020. Last year, in a long-running trial in the UK, where the journalist and his family have been residing, a court found six Bulgarians guilty of spying for Moscow in a sophisticated operation that included Dobrokhotov among their targets.
He echoed Arno’s concern that repression of individuals was also a problem of global security, saying the same groups targeting him “were also responsible for a big wave of sabotage operations in many different countries”.
Katzarova said countries, particularly in Europe and the United States, where she had seen many cases of transnational repression, needed to work more closely to combat the problem, especially by vetting international compliance databases like Interpol to prevent politically motivated entries or arrest warrants from being automatically cleared.
The expert called for a UN convention to establish common definitions, host-state responsibility, and frameworks for prevention, accountability, and cooperation.
“I hope this is not just a distant dream, but there is a lot of work to be done by member states to initiate such a new instrument,” she told journalists, adding that the Human Rights Council should be at the forefront of such a movement.
“In the meantime, while we don’t have this convention in place, I am calling on the host states to actually develop on their national level a whole framework set up to tackle transnational repression with a strategy, with involvement of their law enforcement, prosecutors, civil society, in order to identify who the victims are,” she said.
Human Rights Council members will vote at the end of the session on whether to renew her mandate – in a resolution being led by the European Union. Commenting on the report on the human rights situation in Russia, the EU ambassador noted the existence of a systematic mechanism of repression in Russia that operates even beyond the country’s borders to suppress criticism.
“The EU is concerned about the report’s findings, the cases of murders and poisonings, the abuse of legal and administrative procedures, the conduct of digital operations, and the use of Interpol contrary to its intended purpose — all of which are directed against individuals both within Russia and beyond its borders,” the EU representative noted. [https://ua.news/en/world/es-zaklikav-rosiiu-pripiniti-peresliduvannia-gromadian-cherez-interpol]
A new report published on 2 September 2026 by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) sheds light on the severe human rights impacts of the enforcement of Article 112 of Thailand’s Criminal Code (lèse-majesté) since the country’s latest military coup in May 2014.
The report, titled “The unsayable – Q&A on Thailand’s lèse-majesté”, answers 15 frequently asked questions about Article 112 and its implications for human rights, civic space, the media, and democratic development in Thailand.
“The evidence of the serious human rights violation linked to the enforcement of Article 112 is overwhelming and causes great damage to Thailand’s international standing. Reform of Article 112 is long overdue and efforts by Thai civil society to peacefully campaign for such changes should be commended and protected,” said FIDH Vice-President Teppei Ono.
Statistics about lèse-majesté reflect the severity and scope of the human rights violations linked to the enforcement of Article 112. Between May 2014 and July 2026, at least 461 individuals were prosecuted under Article 112, with at least 199 receiving prison sentences. The 10 longest prison sentences imposed under Article 112 averaged approximately 30 years and six months, with the longest sentence reaching 50 years. At least 21 children were prosecuted under Article 112, with the youngest one aged 14.
As of July 2026, 29 individuals remained detained under Article 112. Of these, 12 were detained pending trial or appeal, while the judgments for the remaining 17 had become final. Among those behind bars is prominent pro-democracy activist and human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, who has accumulated a prison term of over 31 years stemming from 11 lèse-majesté convictions for his speeches and online posts that called for monarchy reform. Three additional lèse-majesté cases remain pending.
At the international level, all the relevant key United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms have consistently expressed their concerns over various aspects of the enforcement of Article 112 and declared it incompatible with Thailand’s human rights obligations under international law…
FIDH and TLHR call on states to use Thailand’s fourth UPR to raise their concerns over the ongoing abuse of Article 112 and make recommendations to the Thai government to bring this provision into line with international law. FIDH and TLHR also urge Thai authorities to establish a moratorium on new lèse-majesté prosecutions and to immediately release all those who are being deprived of their liberty under Article 112.
