Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on October 28, 2025 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute for a Truth under Attack: Independent Voices on Repression, Reporting, and the War against Ukraine.
Attendees will hear directly from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, joined by Russian and Ukrainian journalists and human rights defenders, who have been subjected to politically-motivated persecution. Together, they will highlight urgent recommendations essential for protecting human rights inside the Russian Federation but also for safeguarding a just peace in Ukraine, including: ending persecution and imprisonment of journalists and media workers in Russia; repealing repressive laws and practice, targeting journalists and cultural figures, including banning books and other artistic expression; freeing all Russian political prisoners for dissenting the war, including from media and the arts; releasing all Ukrainian civilian detainees and the return of all Ukrainian children deported to Russia; releasing all Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war on both sides; and full accountability, justice, and reparation for victims.
In its resolution 57/20, the Human Rights Council, renewed the first-ever mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, citing grave concerns over the continued and significant deterioration of the situation of human rights in the country. In her third report, Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova documents how, over the past three years, the Russian Federation has transformed its national-security and public-safety laws into instruments of systematic repression, criminalizing dissent, silencing journalists, and dismantling civic space — inside Russia and in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
As the war grinds on, repression has deepened. The report paints a stark picture of brutal crackdown on anti-war voices and persecution of dissenters, journalists, lawyers, human-rights defenders, and ordinary citizens. Cultural figures have also been severely targeted, with at least 41 currently imprisoned, and some already dead from torture, including denial of adequate and live-saving access to medical care in detention.’
Hundreds of Ukrainians, including civilian detainees have been subjected to illegal trials and torture under Russian jurisdiction in occupied areas. Russian authorities are responsible for all deaths in custody, including the death of Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist and human rights defender.
Russian courts routinely rubber-stamp lengthy prison sentences to disguise repression and injustice, while accepting testimonies received under torture. In her report, the Special Rapporteur continued to expose the use of torture which is widespread and carried out systematically and with total impunity, as part of a government strategy of repression to silence the truth-tellers and erase dissent.
Speakers
Mariana Katzarova, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation;
Ivan Pavlov, exiled Russian human rights lawyer and founder of “First Department;”
Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists;
Vladyslav Yesypenko, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Ukrainian journalist, former political prisoner released from Russian detention in June 2025;
Sergei Davidis, head of the Political Prisoners Support Program and a member of the board at Memorial Human Rights Center;
Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at the New School, Editor of and a contributor to Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World.
