Human rights activists sent an alternative report on human rights in Russia to the UN
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The Memorial Human Rights Center and the environmental NGO Ecodefense sent an alternative report to the UN on the state of economic, social and cultural human rights in Russia. Human rights activists said that the report, previously submitted to the UN by the Russian government, in the context of ongoing events, looks “too out of touch with reality”, and gender inequality and discrimination continue to persist in the country. The document outraged the head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, Valery Fadeev, who considered the alternative view as “discrediting” human rights activities.
Last autumn, the Russian government sent the seventh periodic report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In it, the Russian authorities reported on how the country is implementing the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966 and ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1973. The document contains a catalog of rights with 15 articles (for example, the right to self-determination, the right to work, the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the right to take part in cultural life, etc.). All participating States are required to report periodically on the measures taken to protect them. And the mentioned UN committee is authorized to control the observance by the countries of their obligations.
The previous, sixth report of the Russian Federation was submitted to the UN in 2017. After studying it, representatives of the international organization sent their comments to the authorities: “The Committee is concerned about the widespread social stigmatization and discrimination, in particular on the basis of disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and health status.” In a response report, the Russian authorities indicated that the country has established liability for any discrimination (racial, ethnic, gender, and many others).
With regard to the seventh report, the UN has not yet submitted its comments. The Memorial Human Rights Center (CRHR) (created by employees of the Memorial Human Rights Center, which was included in the register of foreign agents and liquidated) and the environmental NGO Ecodefense, meanwhile, sent their alternative document to the UN Committee. In it, human rights activists outlined their version of the human rights situation in the country. “The document of the Russian authorities is trying to present the situation with social rights in the most favorable light, and in general this is normal – many countries do this,” Zhargal Budaev, a lawyer at the Memorial CHRP, explained to Kommersant. “But in the context of current realities, the official picture looks too detached from reality.”
Thus, public organizations draw the attention of the international community to discrimination, violation of the rights to housing and health, as well as restrictions on access to education for children of refugees and migrants.
“Women are subjected to violence and discrimination everywhere: forced marriages, female circumcision, forced separation from their children in the event of divorce, lack of freedom to choose their lifestyle,” the authors describe, in particular, the situation in the North Caucasus.
According to Memorial, representatives of sexual and religious minorities are also discriminated against. “LGBTIQ+ people are generally unable to express their identity due to the high risk of honor killings, kidnappings and false accusations of criminal activity. Religious minorities are also persecuted – Salafis in Dagestan are subjected to mass preventive registration (not recognized by the authorities) on the basis of religion because of their alleged “tendency to extremism”,” Mr. Budaev explained.
Human rights activists draw attention to the lack of effective criminal law and a national plan to “combat human trafficking”. As an example, the situation of migrants from Central Asia is given: “There are no mechanisms for interaction between authorities, training of law enforcement officers to work with such cases, proper collection and analysis of data on human trafficking.”
The attention of “Memorial” was also attracted by the plight of children of refugees and labor migrants. “Even legally living in Russia, children everywhere do not have access to school education and kindergartens. This happens for formal reasons, such as the lack of registration at the place of residence or imperfect knowledge of the Russian language. The lack of access to education leads to a sharp decrease in the chances of children for a full and prosperous life in the future,” Zhargal Budaev emphasized.
The Memorial Center for Human Rights explained that the alternative report was sent to the UN in order to “restore the most objective picture.”
“We hope that our information will be reflected in its conclusion and recommendations, which can influence the situation, create the necessary information agenda, and attract attention,” the human rights center explained.
The head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, Valery Fadeev, was indignant at the report of human rights activists and called it “shameful”: “There is content, but there is form. Reports of this quality discredit human rights work. These people do not understand what human rights work is, they do not understand what institutions work in the field of human rights, including in Russia.”
Mr. Fadeev noted that the speakers cited only a few particular cases, which do not speak of the general situation in the country.
“Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova and commissioners in the regions process tens of thousands of applications a year. A huge machine works: something works, something doesn’t work. They cited two or three cases in the report and are trying to turn it into a political action. If reasonable people work in the UN, then they should not react in any way to this miserable document, ”concluded the head of the HRC.
Kommersant failed to get a comment from Tatyana Moskalkova, who was one of the drafters of the seventh periodic report of the Russian Federation.
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