WHITHER HUMAN RIGHTS IN RUSSIA?

This hearing focused on the human rights situation in Russia. Russia is no longer an authoritarian dictatorship and civil liberties have improved. However, the decline in Russia's recent economic fortunes has been accompanied by disturbing developments in the area of human rights and civil liberties. A religion law developed in 1977 has led to legal difficulties and complications for some religious organizations in their dealings with local authorities, most notably the declaration of Jehovah Witness as a "destructive sect." Also recent cases of a crackdown on activist has led to Russia's first political prisoner since the defunct Soviet Union with the arrest of the environmental whistleblower, Alexandr Nikitin.