UNITED NATIONS, United States: Russia has expanded its use of torture at home and abroad since invading Ukraine, with the practice notably used to clamp down on dissent during the war, a report by a UN rights expert said Tuesday.
Torture has become “a tool for stifling the civic space, for silencing all anti-war or dissidents, anybody who disagrees with the policies and the Russian authorities,” report author Mariana Katzarova told reporters.
Katzarova, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, noted that the use of torture had been documented in the country for the past three decades.
“But now, after the full-scale invasion, it has become a concerted strategy,” she said.
Those subjected to torture have included conscientious objectors to the draft as well as mobilized men and regular troops who have refused orders to fight against Ukraine, according to the report, which was presented to the UN General Assembly.
At least 15 “unofficial places of detention” exist near the conflict’s frontlines, where “hundreds are kept and subjected to torture to punish them,” the report said.
It noted that Katzarova’s requests to meet with Russian authorities and visit the country “have remained unanswered.”
The findings were based on a review of Russian legislation, reports and analysis from human rights groups, Russian defense lawyers and testimony from survivors, including LGBTQ Russians and detained Ukrainians who have since been released back to their home country.
“Russian authorities rarely face accountability. This impunity has contributed to its ‘normalization’ in society and the ‘legitimization’ of a culture of violence,” it said.
The report also documented a variety of methods used by law enforcement, prison guards and inmates acting under government orders.
“Brutal methods... are designed not just to punish but also to purposefully humiliate and inflict lasting injuries, both psychological and physical, or even death.”
The report also criticized prolonged solitary confinement, such as that inflicted upon opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who died in prison earlier this year.
Russia expanded use of torture after Ukraine invasion: UN expert
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Russia expanded use of torture after Ukraine invasion: UN expert
- Katzarova, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, noted that the use of torture had been documented in the country for the past three decades
Single ‘digital nation-state’ is not a far-fetched notion, Melania Trump tells UN Security Council
- US first lady argues that AI and global connectivity could reshape education, help reduce conflict and empower children worldwide
- Societies rooted in knowledge foster innovation, tolerance and moral reasoning, while those shaped by ignorance risk disorder and conflict, she says
NEW YORK CITY: The idea of a single digital nation-state is “not so far-fetched,” US First Lady Melania Trump told the UN Security Council on Monday.
She argued that artificial intelligence and global connectivity could reshape education, help reduce conflict and empower children worldwide.
The US holds the rotating presidency of the council for March, and as she presided over its first meeting of the month Trump said technology was erasing borders and creating what she described as a shared intellectual future.
“Perhaps this idea isn’t so far-fetched,” she said, pointing to the rise of digital currencies, blockchain-based payment systems, and AI-driven databases she argued were already transforming media and financial markets.
Trump thanked the US’s fellow council members — the UK, France, Russia, China, Greece, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Panama, Liberia, Somalia, Colombia, Pakistan, Bahrain and Latvia — for their role in efforts to maintain international security.
The responsibility for preventing conflict “must be applied evenly and should never be carried out lightly,” she said. Her remarks focused in particular on the role of education as the foundation of peace and stability.
“A nation that makes learning sacred protects its books, its language, its science and its mathematics. It protects its future,” Trump said, arguing that societies rooted in knowledge foster innovation, tolerance and moral reasoning, while those shaped by ignorance risk disorder and conflict.
Education is widely recognized as a fundamental human right, she added, yet many children and young adults around the world remain barred from the chance to attend high school or university. The losses arising from this squandered potential, from potential medical breakthroughs to possible advances in food security and technology, are borne not only by the individual countries involved but by humanity as a whole, she said.
Trump called for the expansion of global access to technology to help bridge the digital divide, noting that about 6 billion people, 70 percent of the world’s population, now use mobile devices and the internet.
“If our nations band together, we can close the technological divide,” she said, describing a world in which a farmer on a remote Greek island, a student in Somalia and a resident of New York City can all tap into centuries of accumulated human knowledge.
AI was democratizing access to information once confined to university libraries, she added, and redefining participation in the global “economy of ideas.”
She continued: “Conflict arises from ignorance. Knowledge creates understanding, replacing fear with peace and unity.”
Trump called on council members to safeguard learning and promote access to higher education, urging them to “build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education.”
She added: “The path to peace depends on us taking responsibility to empower our children through education and technology.”
