Olga Sadovskaya, a member of the Committee Against Torture, will give public lectures about the risks that their work entails during a tour of Ireland this week.

Sadovskaya works with the Committee Against Torture (CAT) in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in Russia. She and her colleagues helped set up a special rapid response team to investigate killings in the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

“My husband says that I am a crazy idealist. I still believe I can change something despite all the difficulties,” said Sadovskaya.

“The human rights situation in Russia has worsened in recent years. There are real personal threats against human rights defenders working on taboo topics like the use of torture by the police. You can be beaten up, you can be killed, and those who work in Chechnya and the North Caucasus are in the most dangerous situations,” said Sadovskaya.

The team, which won Front Line’s annual award last year, has received a series of death threats because of their work. Front Line has provided the committee with funding to install security surveillance equipment in their offices. Olga Sadovskaya will be joined by Front Line director Mary Lawlor at public meetings in the cities of Carlow, Kilkenny, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Athlone throughout the week.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco