UN Special Rapporteurs yet to respond to appeal concerning Iryna Danylovych

Two months after international organisations appealed to six UN Special Rapporteurs to help secure the release of Crimean citizen journalist Iryna Danylovych and protect her rights, the UN experts have yet to respond, Olha Novytska, the sister of journalist and activist Iryna Danylovych, told Crimea.Realities, the project of Radio Liberty.

Iryna Danylovych. Photo: open sources

“I am not aware of any response from the Special Rapporteurs to these appeals. Not one of them has even made a public statement in support of my sister. The UN adopted both the Nelson Mandela Rules and the Convention against Torture, yet its representatives are now simply ignoring the situation“, Novytska said.

Meanwhile, according to Novytska, Iryna Danylovych’s rights continue to be violated in Russian detention. In particular, she continues to be subjected to searches in the penal colony without proper grounds or the required documentation. The journalist’s sister urged concerned individuals to contact the UN Special Rapporteurs and ask whether they intend to respond to the international organisations’ appeals concerning Danylovych.

Novytska also believes it is important for foreign organisations and international bodies to contact the Russian prison authorities regarding Danylovych’s conditions of detention. In her view, such inquiries could demonstrate that her situation continues to be monitored internationally.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), together with the US-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF), referred the case of Crimean journalist Iryna Danylovych to six UN Special Rapporteurs, calling for urgent action in response to her deteriorating health. 

ZMINA previously reported that the administration of the Russian penal colony in Zelenokumsk subjects Crimean political prisoner and citizen journalist Iryna Danylovych, who has a serious ear condition, to torture by exposing her to loud noise for 12 hours a day. 

Read more: “Sharper than physical pain – the feeling of helplessness”: speech of the imprisoned journalist

In May 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) communicated two applications lodged by Iryna Danylovych against Russia. 

Iryna Danylovych is a nurse and civil society activist from Feodosia. She cooperated with the publication INzhyr media and the human rights project Crimean Process. She defended the interests of medical workers on the peninsula: she joined an independent trade union and wrote extensively about violations of their rights, such as underpayment for working with COVID-19 patients. She also ran a social media page and several blog columns dedicated to the rights of medical workers and healthcare issues in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

FSB officers abducted her on April 29 and held her in an FSB basement until May 7 without any legal status or access to a lawyer. She was interrogated using a polygraph and subjected to psychological pressure: she was threatened with being taken to the forest or to Mariupol and was fed only once a day. She also stated this in the illegal “court” in Feodosia.

Despite the outrage of the international human rights community, on December 28, 2022, the “Feodosia City Court” delivered its verdict on Iryna Danylovych. She was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 50,000 rubles for allegedly storing explosives.

Danylovych suffers from severe headaches and is suspected of having acute inflammation of the middle and inner ear. There is a risk of brain inflammation, which can lead to death.

On March 26, the EU Delegation to Ukraine expressed concern about the health of illegally sentenced Danylovych and called for immediate medical assistance to be provided to her.

In January 2025, the woman complained of deteriorating health in the colony, including constant headaches and ringing in her ears and head.

Earlier, ZMINA reported that Iryna Danylovych, illegally imprisoned by Russia for seven years, suffers from severe heart pain, which prevents her from sleeping normally. 

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