Human Rights Council Prepares Proposals for Draft Domestic Violence Bill

This summer, members of the President’s Human Rights Council (HRC) visited women’s colonies in several Russian regions. They paid special attention to Russian women imprisoned for murder (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) or causing grievous bodily harm (Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Judging by the stories of the prisoners themselves, almost all such crimes were committed against spouses or cohabitants against the backdrop of prolonged domestic violence. Returning from the colonies, members of the HRC prepared a number of proposals for the draft law “On the protection of the family and the prevention of domestic violence”, mothballed after criticism from parliamentarians, activists and religious leaders.

Members of the HRC visited institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Ingushetia, Chuvashia and other regions to assess the conditions of detention in Russian women’s colonies and better understand who their contingent consists of, journalist and member of the HRC Eva Merkacheva told Kommersant. “We understood that these were mostly women convicted under Article 228 (drug trafficking.— “b”),” said Mrs. Merkacheva. “However, even by analyzing the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Penitentiary Service, it was difficult to find out what other prisoners were serving time for.” So, in two colonies in Chuvashia, there were approximately the same number of women convicted under “narcotic” compounds and under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder) and Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (causing grievous bodily harm). Interviewing convicts, human rights activists found that in most cases such crimes were committed on the basis of prolonged, sometimes many years of domestic violence by their partners. “I purposefully asked to bring women with the 105th and 111th articles. With rare exceptions, all these situations were about domestic violence. Most often, the stories were completely typical: the partner began to drink, beat, the women had nowhere to go, ”said Ms. Merkacheva.

The conclusions of the HRC member are confirmed by the lawyer, head of the Center for the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence at the Consortium of Women’s NGOs Mari Davtyan: “Back in 2019, a study by Novaya Gazeta and Mediazona (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents.— “b”) court verdicts against women who killed their partners showed that in four out of five cases, women defended themselves from domestic violence.”

The prisoners told Eva Merkacheva that they tried to complain about the behavior of their partners to the police. Usually, law enforcement officers reacted – for example, they detained a man for the night. However, it all ended there, and the women themselves withdrew the application, either because they were afraid of reprisals, or in the hope of correcting their partner, or simply “out of hopelessness”. According to a member of the HRC, the women’s main problem was the issue of asylum: “If they had somewhere to go at least for a while, they would have left. In second place is the lack of psychological and legal assistance. They behaved like classic victims of domestic violence and did not know how to get out of the situation – killing was sometimes the only way out for them.

Despite the real threat to the life and health of a woman or her child, the courts almost never considered such actions of women as exceeding permissible self-defense, Ms. Merkacheva notes: he can no longer live: “What did you wait until the last, and then grabbed a knife?” And in the end, women were charged with murder or causing grievous bodily harm.”

“Our study “The Algorithm of Light” (a non-governmental study of the factor of domestic violence in criminal cases on the facts of murder.— “b”) showed that in pre-Soviet times, more than 64% of the murdered women were killed in the family,” says Ms. Davtyan. “There are several reasons why the courts and the investigation do not take into account the situation of the necessary defense of women.” According to her, the courts, in principle, began to take into account the necessary defense only “in the last few years”, and the investigation is still not inclined to consider the experience of domestic violence as a circumstance subject to proof. “Finally, most often women defend themselves with a knife from a man with bare hands,” notes Ms. Davtyan. “This, according to the court, is disproportionate to the necessary defense.”

Ms. Merkacheva told Kommersant that the Human Rights Council had prepared an analytical report to the Federation Council and several legislative proposals to combat domestic violence. Recall that the bill, developed with the participation of ex-State Duma deputy Oksana Pushkina (ER) in 2019, was mothballed in the Federation Council after criticism from parliamentarians, activists and religious leaders. Thus, Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the Committee on State Building and Legislation, considered it contrary to the Constitution, while Patriarch Kirill and Mufti of Moscow Ildar Alyautdinov perceived the law as a dangerous interference in the lives of Russian families. The HRC, for its part, invites legislators to equate the status of cohabitation with the status of official marriage in the issue of domestic violence and to expand the powers of the regions in the field of prevention of domestic violence, for example, by allowing them to monitor and analyze relevant cases. In addition, it is proposed to add legal assistance to the measures of state prevention of domestic violence. The HRC also points to ambiguity regarding the involvement of NGOs in the field of domestic violence prevention. The latest version of the 2019 draft law stated that organizations from the “register of NPOs formed by the Fund-Operator of Presidential Grants” can participate in such activities. The HRC believes that all socially oriented NGOs included in the relevant state register have the right to participate in the prevention of domestic violence.

Emilia Gabdullina