Mariana Katzarova: A Mandate For The Russian People

2025-12-17 04:12:43

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) In a mini-documentary, Swissinfo follows the first United Nations Special Rapporteur for Russia Mariana Katzarova. A rare insight into one of the UN's toughest jobs. This content was published on December 17, 2025 - 09:00 2 minutes Elena Servett, Carlo Pisa, Céline Stegmüll, Michele Andi
UN Special Rapporteur for Russia, Mariana Katzarova, documents human rights abuses, torture and repression - inside one of the UN's toughest mandates. SWI swissinfo / Carlo Pisani

In 2023 Mariana Katzarova was appointed as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation. Her job entails documenting human rights abuses in Russia including torture, arbitrary detention, punitive psychiatry and the repression of civil society. Russia has never recognised her mandate and refuses to grant her access to the country.

This new episode of closeUp, a mini-documentary series produced by Swissinfo, follows Katzarova from Geneva to Brussels as she navigates meeting stakeholders in the UN and the EU and gathering testimonies of Ukrainian and Russian torture survivors.

This story is part of сloseUp – Swissinfo's mini-documentary series. Watch other episodes on YouTube.

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The documentary is a rare insight into the job of UN special rapporteurs, unpaid specialists whose jobs have become increasingly laden with risks.

“I'm not the story of persecution. The story is the Russian people,” she tells Swissinfo.

Born and raised in communist Bulgaria, Katzarova experienced what it means to challenge an authoritarian system at a young age. She wasn't allowed to choose her school and later as a student joined one of the first opposition newspapers after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. She became the first Bulgarian citizen to study at Columbia Journalism School in New York.

Her path led her to the front lines of Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo and then to Chechnya, where she documented war crimes and human rights abuses. At Amnesty International, she spent nearly a decade researching Russia, leading teams of investigators and publishing the organisation's first report on torture in the country in 1997.

Today, as UN Special Rapporteur on Russia, Katzarova meets directly with survivors, from Chechen LGBTQ+ people to Ukrainian prisoners of war, who entrust her with their testimonies and medical evidence. But what is the personal cost and sacrifice of documenting human rights violations in and around Russia?

Edited by Virginie Mangin/ts