One focus of our letter-writing activities is the issue of women's rights. Amnesty International receives many reports of human rights violations against women that fall into the following categories:

• Domestic violence

  In early 2002, the Russian government reported that 14,000 women die every year at the hands of their husbands or other relatives. One reason for the persistence of domestic violence is that Russian law does not recognize it as a distinct crime.

• Violence by state agents

  Amnesty receives regular reports of torture and ill-treatment of women in Russian police stations and prisons. Women have also suffered a wide range of abuses in the context of the armed conflict in Chechnya.