Human rights in Russia

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Although human rights record in Russia has largely improved since Soviet time with Russia's move towards democracy and implementation of property rights, freedom of speech and religion, still the situation with human rights remains uneven and is often criticized by local and international observers.

Although the government has made progress in recognizing the legitimacy of international human rights standards, the institutionalization of procedures to safeguard these rights has lagged. Implementation of the constitutional provisions for due process and timely trials, for example, has made little progress.

1 Criminal justice
2 Situation in Chechnya
3 Governmental organizations
4 Freedom of religion
5 Non-governmental organizations
6 Freedom of the press
7 Minority rights
8 Disabled and children rights
9 Footnotes
10 See also
11 External links
12 Further reading

[edit] Criminal justice

There are indications that the law is becoming an increasingly important tool for those seeking to protect human rights; after a lengthy trial and eight separate indictments, environmental whistleblower Alexander Nikitin was acquitted of espionage charges relating to publication of material exposing hazards posed by the Russian Navy's aging nuclear fleet. On September 13, 2001, the Presidium of the Supreme Court dismissed the prosecution's last appeal against the December 29, 1999 acquittal of Nikitin. Nonetheless, serious problems remain. Human rights groups have identified several political prisoners in Russia including Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Mikhail Trepashkin.

The judiciary is often subject to manipulation by political authorities and is plagued by large case backlogs and trial delays. Lengthy pretrial detention remains a serious problem. With the prison population rate of 532 per 100,000 population, Russia is tied with Bermuda (UK) and Belarus, second to the United States. There are credible reports of beating and torturing of inmates and detainees by law enforcement and correctional officials. Prison conditions fall well below international standards. In 2000, human rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov estimated that 50% of prisoners with whom he spoke claimed to have been tortured. Human rights groups estimate that about 11,000 inmates and prison detainees die annually, most because of overcrowding, disease, and lack of medical care. In 2001, President Putin pronounced a moratorium on the death penalty. However, there are reports that the Russian Government might still be violating promises they made upon entering the European Council, especially in terms of prison control and conditions.

[edit] Situation in Chechnya

The Russian Government's military policy in Chechnya is a cause for international concern. Russian military forces have abducted, tortured, and killed numerous civilians in Chechnya, but Chechen rebel groups have also committed extensive abuses.^{[citation needed]} Human rights groups are very critical of cases of Chechens disappearing in the custody of Russian officials. Russian authorities have introduced some improvements, including better access to complaint mechanisms, the formal opening of investigations in most cases, and the introduction of two decrees requiring the presence of civilian investigators and other nonmilitary personnel during all large scale military operations and targeted search and seizure operations.^{[citation needed]} Human rights groups welcome these changes, but claim that most abuses remain uninvestigated and unpunished.^{[citation needed]} According to Human Rights Watch, there are systematic illegal arrests and torture conducted by the armed forces under the command of Ramzan Kadyrov and Federal Ministry of Interior [1]. There are reports about repressions, information blockade, and atmosphere of fear and despair in Chechnya [2]

[edit] Governmental organizations

Efforts to institutionalize official human rights bodies have been mixed. In 1996, human rights activist Sergey Kovalev resigned as chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission to protest the government's record, particularly the war in Chechnya. Parliament in 1997 passed a law establishing a "human rights ombudsman," a position that is provided for in Russia's constitution and is required of members of the Council of Europe, to which Russia was admitted in February 1996. The Duma finally selected Duma deputy Oleg Mironov in May 1998. A member of the Communist Party, Mironov resigned from both the Party and the Duma after the vote, citing the law's stipulation that the Ombudsman be nonpartisan. Because of his party affiliation, and because Mironov had no evident expertise in the field of human rights, his appointment was widely criticized at the time by human rights activists. International human rights groups operate freely in Russia, although the government has hindered the movements and access to information of some individuals investigating the war in Chechnya.

[edit] Freedom of religion

The Constitution of Russian Federation provides for freedom of religion and the equality of all religions before the law as well as the separation of church and state. Although Jews and Muslims continue to encounter prejudice and societal discrimination, they have not been inhibited by the government in the free practice of their religion. High-ranking federal officials have condemned anti-Semitic hate crimes, but law enforcement bodies have not effectively prosecuted those responsible. The influx of missionaries over the past several years has led to pressure by groups in Russia, specifically nationalists and the Russian Orthodox Church, to limit the activities of these "nontraditional" religious groups. In response, the Duma passed a new, restrictive, and potentially discriminatory law in October 1997. The law is very complex, with many ambiguous and contradictory provisions. The law's most controversial provisions separates religious "groups" and "organizations" and introduce a 15-year rule, which allows groups that have existed for 15 years or longer to obtain accredited status. Senior Russian officials have pledged to implement the 1997 law on religion in a manner that is not in conflict with Russia's international human rights obligations. Some local officials, however, have used the law as a pretext to restrict religious liberty.

According to Russian dissident Father Gleb Yakunin, new religion law "heavily favors the Russian Orthodox Church at the expense of all other religions, including Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.", and it is "a step backward in Russia's process of democratization" [3] Farther Gleb Yakunin was stripped of his congregation by the Russian Orthodox Church, perhaps because he revealed that Patriarch Alexius II and other Church leaders were KGB agents <ref name="Andrew"> Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, Gardners Books (2000), ISBN 0-14-028487-7 </ref> <ref name="Albats"> Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia--Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.</ref>

[edit] Non-governmental organizations

The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a bill by 370-18 requiring local branches of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to reregister as Russian organizations subject to Russian jurisdiction, and thus stricter financial and legal restrictions. The bill gives Russian officials oversight of local finances and activities. The bill has been highly criticized by Human Rights Watch, Memorial rights organization, and the nonprofit think tank Indem for its potential effects on international monitoring of the status of human rights in Russia. [4] [5]

[edit] Freedom of the press

Russia occupies 140th place of the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (in the list of 167 countries) [6]. Since 1992 forty-two journalists have been killed in Russia. Thirty have been killed during President Boris Yeltsin's reign, and the rest were killed under current president Vladimir Putin [7]. However these data are probably incomplete. The list of criminal cases from "Glasnost Defense Foundation" includes 9 killed and 59 attacked (severely beaten) journalists, and 11 attacks on editorial offices only in 2006 (from January to October). [8]. In 2005, the list of all cases includes 6 murders, 63 attacks, 12 attacks on editorial offices, 23 cases of censorship, 42 criminal prosecutions, 11 illegal layoffs, 47 arrests, 382 lawsuits, 233 cases of obstruction, 23 closings of editorial offices by authorities, 10 evictions, 28 confiscations of printed production, 23 cases of stopping broadcasting, 38 refusals to distribute or print production, 25 acts of intimidation, and 344 other violations of Russian journalist's rights [9].

Most recently, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, famous for her criticisms of President Vladimir Putin, Russia's actions in Chechnya, and the pro-Kremlin Chechyan government, was assassinated in Moscow on October 7, 2006, on Putin's birthday. Former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky believes that murders of writers Yuri Shchekochikhin (author of "Slaves of KGB" [10]), Anna Politkovskaya, and Aleksander Litvinenko show that FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations [11] which were conducted in the past by Thirteenth KGB Department.<ref name="Andrew"> *Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, Gardners Books (2000), ISBN 0-14-028487-7 </ref>

[edit] Minority rights

There is a growing intolerance and racist violence in Russia. The number of murders officially classified as racist more than doubled between 2003 and 2004 from around 20 to at least 45. A nationwide opinion poll in 2005 found that 61% of respondents approved of the "Russia for Russians" slogan, almost twice the 31% level recorded in 1998. [12] According to the 2006 poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, 12% of Russians see "positive ideas" in fascism; 24% think that people who hold fascist views do not constitute a danger to society.

[edit] Disabled and children rights

According to Human Rights Watch report in 1998, "Russian children are abandoned to the state at a rate of 113,000 a year for the past two years, up dramatically from 67,286 in 1992." "Of a total of more than 600,000 children classified as being “without parental care,” as many as one-third reside in institutions, while the rest are placed with a variety of guardians." "From the moment the state assumes their care, orphans in Russia—of whom 95 percent still have a living parent—are exposed to shocking levels of cruelty and neglect." Once officially labelled as retarded, Russian orphans are "warehoused for life in psychoneurological internaty. In addition to receiving little to no education in such internaty, these orphans may be restrained in cloth sacks, tethered by a limb to furniture, denied stimulation, and sometimes left to lie half-naked in their own filth. Bedridden children aged five to seventeen are confined to understaffed lying-down rooms as in the baby houses, and in some cases are neglected to the point of death." Life of disabled children in the State institutions was described by Ruben Galiego <ref name="Galiego"> Ruben Gallego and Marian Schwartz (Translator) White on Black Harcourt 2006 ISBN: 0-151-01227-X </ref> [13]. Still, the recent adoption law made it more difficult to adopt Russian children from abroad.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Situation in general

David Satter. Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. Yale University Press. 2003. ISBN 0-300-09892-8.
Andrew Meier. Black Earth: A Journey through Russia After the Fall. W. W. Norton & Company. 2005. ISBN 0-393-32641-1
Politkovskaya, Anna (2004) Putin's Russia
Jonathan Weiler. Human Rights in Russia: A Darker Side of Reform. Lynne Rienner Publishers 2004. ISBN 1-588-26279-0 [14]
Archana Pyati. The New Dissidents: Human Rights Defenders and Counterterrorism in Russia. Human Rights First. 2005. ISBN 0-975-31500-5 Link to internet version and Information about author
Emma Gilligan. Defending Human Rights in Russia: Sergei Kovalyov, Dissident and Human Rights Commisioner, 1969-96 (BASEES/Curzon Series on Russian & East European Studies) RoutledgeCurzon. 2003. ISBN 0-415-32369-X Link to internet version
Pamela A. Jordan. Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State, And Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era 2006. ISBN 0-774-81163-3.

[edit] FSB, terror, and human rights

Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia--Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.
Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia : Terror from within. 2002. ISBN 1-561-71938-2