Monique van Ravenstein is Coordinator of the Russia programme at Amnesty International, The Netherlands. Monique studied journalism at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht and the Russian language and Russian affairs at the University of Amsterdam. As a freelance journalist, she wrote about (among other things) Chechnya, hazing in the Russian army (dedovshchina), Russian war veterans and Russian minorities in Lithuania. She joined Amnesty International’s staff first as an editor and later editor-in-chief of the Dutch human rights magazine Wordt Vervolgd. Currently, she leads the Russia programme at Amnesty International the Netherlands. The focus of her work is organizing support for and protection of Russian human rights defenders, human rights organisations and civil society through EU advocacy, capacity building and human rights education projects.