In late June, at the height of the war, Ukraine ratified the Istanbul Convention – the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. On the one hand, this makes complete sense: Ukraine hopes to…
On August 2, the world commemorates Roma who were victims of World War II. On this day in 1944, almost 4300 Roma died in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Nazi-occupied Poland. Decades later, Roma are again fleeing war, this time…
When the famous Soviet figure-skaters Belousova and Protopopov fled the USSR in 1979, asking for political asylum in Switzerland, they were called traitors and renegades. There was even a verse: “So you are just deserters, just vlasovtsy [supporters of Soviet…
We have become accustomed to hearing the phrase “it was impossible to verify this information” accompanying news about Russia’s war against Ukraine – it even seems that we need to introduce a special acronym. This phrase accompanies not just the…
It has been almost a decade since the repressive laws on “foreign agents” (2012) and “gay propaganda” (2013) were adopted. At the time of their adoption, defenders of the rights of LGBTI+ people were at the forefront of Russia’s human…
Much of the world’s attention is currently fixed on Ukraine. People in various countries are following the news closely, learning the names of Ukrainian cities, taking in refugees, and sending humanitarian packages. Many are shocked by evidence of the aggressors’…
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