Irina Biryukova
Irina Biryukova is a lawyer with Public Verdict Foundation. Public Verdict Foundation is an organisation which raises awareness of human rights violations committed by law enforcement agents, contributes to ensure public oversight of places of detention in the Russian Federation and provides victims who have suffered abuse by law enforcement with legal help.
The environment for the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the Russian Federation is difficult, especially for those who defend and promote the rights of LGBTI people, ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, as well as activists of the North Caucasus and the unlawfully annexed Crimean Peninsula. HRDs are often subjected to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threat, raids and searches on their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. There have also been cases where HRDs have been murdered as a result of their work.
