OutRight Action International is calling on British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron to take a stand against the kidnapping, detention, torture, and murder of gay men in Chechnya. All three companies have considerable investment and partnerships with state-owned oil and gas companies in Russia, with ventures worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Exxon, BP, and Shell should use the leverage they have on Russia and use any means possible to urge Russian authorities to immediately end these horrific persecutions. Help OutRight in calling on these companies to recognize that this goes beyond business interests it is a matter of life and death.

Here is what you can do:

• Sign our petition asking oil companies to speak out

• Instagram campaign - take a photo of yourself with a sign that says "Stop the detention, torture and killing of gay men in Chechnya"  and mention @kadyrov_95eng, the Official Page of the Head of the Chechen Republic using the hashtags: #freegaychechens #chechnya or repost message from Alan Cumming, OutRight's Ambassador.  Repost Andy Cohen's message to Ramzan Kadyrov.

• Respectful communication with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Secretary General’s offices if you have any connections. See: Open Letter to the United Nations Secretary General

• Organize demonstrations outside of Russian embassies.

List of other petitions to sign: Amnesty International, AllOut, and Avaaz. Signing these petitions will mount to further public pressure.

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Do you have information about the situation in Chechnya?

Due to the human rights situation in Chechnya, it is difficult to get information from the ground. If you have information, please contact The Russian LGBT Network can be called for free in Russia - 8 800 555 73 74.

Anyone outside Russia with information they would like to share on the current situation in Chechnya can also confidentially contact ILGA-Europe Tel.: +32 2 609 54 10 or info@ilga-europe.org