UNHRC calls on Russia to cease human rights abuses in Donbas and Crimea / Photo from un.org
Members of the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) have called on Russia to put an end to human rights violations, namely, limiting free speech and targeting homosexuals, and to act to prevent torture by police and racist crimes.
This is written in a committee report published on April 2 and quoted by Reuters.
According to the report, the committee also asks Russia to prevent violation of a key U.N. pact to which it is signatory by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, by authorities in the Chechen Republic, and in Crimea.
The committee's document largely referred to "reports" of abuses and violence, including by what it called "ultra-nationalist, racist and neo-Nazi" extremists, and of torture of crime suspects in jails.
The committee insists that Moscow should take steps immediately to give "effective protection to lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and opposition politicians whose lives, safety and security are under threat."
"During a discussion then, Russian officials denied the truth of many of the reports cited by the body's members, largely lawyers and academics. But Moscow has not responded formally," Reuters wrote.