The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:

“Canada welcomes the expert report on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

“The special rapporteur’s fact-finding report confirms that severe human rights violations continue in the Chechen Republic, including against LGBTQ individuals. The testimonies and accounts of torture—and worse—are harrowing and deplorable.

“Canada and 15 other countries of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe invoked the Moscow Mechanism, a tool to investigate these grave human rights violations. This followed reports of impunity for violators of human rights—particularly against gay and bisexual men in Chechnya—including harassment and persecution, arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

“Canada calls for an immediate end to these human rights violations and for the perpetrators to face justice. Together, we cannot and must not fail to speak up for and defend human rights around the world.”