Russia should move quickly to reform laws and practices that currently prevent the 13 million Russians with disabilities from enjoying equal rights, Human Rights Watch said today. President Dmitry Medvedev signed a federal law on May 3, 2012, formally ratifying the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was trying to decide whether to pin a pink triangle to the lapel of my black overcoat, Sergei Kondrashov was detained by police in the street of Russia’s northern capital with a banner saying, "A dear family friend is a lesbian. My wife and I love and respect her ... and her family is just as equal as ours."

We write to express concern about serious deficiencies in the selection procedure used to select candidates from the Russian Federation for election to the European Court of Human Rights. We believe the procedure used falls far short of the most recent set of Guidelines adopted by the Committee of Ministers on the selection of candidates for the post of judge at the European Court of Human Rights (CM(2012)40 final), adopted on March 29, 2012.

Law enforcement should carry out a prompt and effective investigation into the attempted arson on March 24, 2012, at the office of The Group of Free People in Nizhny Novgorod.