Originally published by RSF on its website.
Arbitrarily detained by Russia since 2022, independent Crimean journalist Iryna Danilovych is enduring inhumane detention conditions and serious violations of her fundamental rights. Given the deterioration in her health, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the US-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF) have referred her case to six United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs, calling for urgent action. She must be released.
“Iryna is suffering from depression. She is not even receiving the letters that are sent to her,” a source close to the independent Crimean journalist Iryna Danilovych told RSF, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. At the end of March, Danilovych’s sister warned that she was being exposed to “deafening” music from morning to night despite her hearing impairment, in addition to her neurological problems and brain lesions. These abuses are nothing new. RSF previously documented the “torture without a trace” endured by the reporter, including psychological pressure such as constant exposure to artificial light.
Detained by Moscow since April 2022 and currently imprisoned in Zelenokumsk prison in southwestern Russia, Iryna Danilovych, who worked for local media outlets in Crimea such as InZhir-media and Crimean Process, is facing inhumane detention conditions and repeated violations of her fundamental rights, including access to medical care.
As her health deteriorates, RSF and the US-based HRF have decided to alert several UN Special Rapporteurs, providing them with the latest information on Iryna Danilovych’s detention and medical conditions. With competence in torture, freedom of expression, violence against women, the independence of the judiciary, the protection of human rights defenders, and counter-terrorism, these independent experts are being called upon to urgently take up her case and investigate her situation. Two further appeals challenging her detention — brought by people close to her — are currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
For more than four years, Iryna Danilovych has been paying the price for her independent journalistic work in Russian prisons, subjected to arbitrary detention and inhumane and degrading treatment. Her state of health is deeply worrying. RSF and HRF call on the United Nations to act. Russia must put an end to this torture, release the journalist, and be held accountable for its violent acts against Ukrainian journalists.
– Antoine Bernard, RSF Director of Advocacy and Assistance
Iryna’s deteriorating health and dangerous conditions of detention demand renewed and urgent intervention by the UN Special Rapporteurs. Given the deaths of Ukrainian detainees in Russian custody in recent years, the international community cannot afford to ignore the serious and mounting risks to her health and safety.
– Hannah Van Dijcke, HRF Legal and Research Officer
