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Institute for Human Rights warns UN of transnational repression wave across Europe
- IHR
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Institute for Human Rights has urged UN Human Rights Council to launch a joint coalition to counter state-backed violence against exiled activists.
Diana Nazarets, an advocacy officer at the Institute for Human Rights, told the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday that authoritarian regimes were actively exploiting European territory to silence and intimidate critics.
Speaking during an interactive dialogue in Geneva, Nazarets highlighted a series of recent attacks, including the killing of a Belarusian cartoonist in Poland and alleged state-backed assassination attempts in France and Switzerland.
"We express grave concern over the growing wave of transnational repression targeting critics of authoritarian regimes in exile," Nazarets said.
Nazarets told the council that Rusian cartoonist Skrypetsky, who was killed on 15 June in Poland, was the victim of a "politically motivated assassination" supported by Russian and Belarusian authorities.
She also cited a series of targeted attacks against critics of the government of Azerbaijan.
Among these was the attempted murder of Azerbaijani blogger Muhammad Mirzali in France, noting a French court had confirmed state involvement from Baku.
Two suspects detained in Switzerland in 2022 in connection with the attack were subsequently extradited to Azerbaijan, Nazarets said.
In a separate incident in Switzerland, human rights defender Emin Huseynov was forced to file a formal complaint with the Geneva Prosecutor's Office in February this year following what his group called "failed assassination attempts".
The outgoing UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, strongly backed the calls to combat cross-border intimidation, describing the lack of accountability as the "biggest gap" in protecting journalists.
"It is very easy to attack us, and that is cowardice," Khan said during her final address to the council, marking the end of her six-year term.
Nazarets warned that the reach of these hostile intelligence networks extended to other major European cities, including Berlin, where several exiled Azerbaijani bloggers have received direct threats.
"These events expose an extensive reach of Azerbaijan's networks of transnational repression operating across Europe," Nazarets said.
She urged UN Human Rights Council to establish a joint mechanism to protect exiled communities and end impunity for hostile foreign governments.
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