In a recent statement UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk pointed to serious concerns about the incompatibility of many of the new law’s provisions with international human rights law. “This ambiguity [in the law] is deeply troubling, given its potential misuse and arbitrary application, including to target dissenting voices, journalists, researchers, civil society actors and human rights defenders. As we have already seen, such provisions readily lead to self-censorship and chilling of legitimate speech and conduct, in respect of matters of public interest on which open debate is vital,” he concluded.