RUSSIA: Children's Rights in the UN Special Procedures' Reports

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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity

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Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Ofelia Calcetas-Santos

(E/CN.4/2001/78/Add.2)

Country visit: 2 – 11 october 2000

Report published: 6 February 2001

View the full report

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Report by the UN Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced persons, Francis M. Deng

(E/CN.4/2004/77/Add.2)

Mr. Deng identified the following concerns:

Country visit: 7 – 13 September 2003

Report published: 24 February 2004

Children in Conflict: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict also visited the Russian Federation, including the three Republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia-Alania, from 17 to 24 June 2002. During his mission “he drew particular attention to the situation of displaced populations and received assurances from the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, the President of Ingushetia and the Government of Chechnya that internally displaced persons would not be returned to their places of origin by force. The Special Representative expressed concern about reports on the enlistment of children by the insurgents, and about abuses reportedly committed by security agencies against young persons suspected of being associated with insurgency groups” (E/CN.4/2003/77, para. 19). (para 19)

Education: Returnees in TACs set up by the Government in Grozny indicated that they had not been forced to return but that they had been promised better conditions than in the tented camps in Ingushetia, compensation for destroyed and lost property, and adequate levels of humanitarian assistance. Some also emphasized that they had chosen to return as they believed they would be in a position to ensure their children’s education. However, they asserted that they had not found much of what they had been promised, in particular compensation and adequate humanitarian assistance, and they remained seriously concerned about the security situation and their own safety. (…) (para 37)

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Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Yakin Ertürk

(E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.2)

Country visit: 17 – 24 December 2004

Report published: 26 January 2006

Ms. Yakin Ertürk identified the following concerns:

Domestic violence: Owing to police inaction, many victims of domestic violence do not file complaints - 40 per cent of women victims of domestic violence never seek help from law enforcement agencies.22 In cases that are filed, victims reportedly often withdraw their complaint due to lack of confidence in the justice system, economic dependency on or threats from the perpetrator, fear of losing custody of their children or the social stigma connected with domestic violence. Thus, very few complaints ever reach the courts or result in prosecution. (para 41)

Illegal detainment: After the Beslan school hostage-taking in September 2004, more than 300 relatives of the hostage-takers, including women and children, were reportedly detained by official command. On 29 October 2004, the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Ustinov, said that hostage-taking of terrorists’ relatives should be legalized as a way to force terrorists to surrender. Although he subsequently retracted this statement, the Special Rapporteur received testimonies indicating that relatives of suspected terrorists continued to be detained to compel terrorists to surrender. The detention of innocent people as hostages by the State is contrary to international law. Chechen women, often the only remaining relatives, are thereby made vulnerable to incommunicado detention, torture and ill-treatment. Furthermore, it has been observed that this strategy is counter-productive as for Chechen men, inability to protect their women and elders is a strong blow on dignity and it strengthens the motivation of combatants to continue the guerrilla war by urge for revenge.

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Report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Doudou Diène

Country visit: 12 – 17 June 2006

Report published: 30 may 2007

Mr. Diène identified the following concerns:

Violence: Members of the Caucasian and Central Asian communities, including children, are reported to be a major target of violence by extremist groups. Particularly disturbing is the assassination of Khursheda Sultonova, a 9-year-old Tajik girl murdered in St. Petersburg in February 2004 by a group of teenagers armed with baseball bats, chains and knives allegedly shouting the slogan “Russia for the Russians”. The verdict by the St. Petersburg City Court of March 2004 convicting the teenagers on charges of hooliganism sparked outrage among human rights campaigners, who considered that the lenient sentence would encourage an increase of racist and xenophobic violence by neo-Nazi and extremist groups in the country. (para 50)

The Roma Community: NGOs working with Roma expressed concern at the lack of a comprehensive law, policy or institution addressing the specific issues and concerns of the Roma community in the Russian Federation. They unanimously referred to the need to create a federal plan for the Roma community and the establishment of a federal institution in charge of Roma issues, in particular, the issue of land, the promotion of education for the Roma community, and the sensitization of the Russian society about Roma history, culture and traditions in order to eliminate the negative stereotypes they are recurrently associated with. (para 54)

The Government should adopt a comprehensive federal plan for the Roma community, aiming at both promoting and respecting their cultural identity and at eradicating their social and economic marginalization, in particular, poor housing conditions, lack of documents, the high level of dropouts of Roma children at school and the difficulties of the Roma to access employment. The plan should also aim at sensitizing the Russian society to Roma history and traditions, in order to eliminate the negative stigma and stereotypes Roma are recurrently associated with. The problem of housing evictions should be treated as a matter of priority. (para 91)

Social Services: During the mission, the Special Rapporteur visited the Kelderary Roma community in the village of Peri, located in the district of Vsevolozshsky (Leningrad oblast), inhabited by approximately 1,320 persons, including 500 to 600 children. Representatives of the community expressed frustration and discontent at their poor living conditions, the degree of violence affecting the community and the lack of assistance provided by the authorities. The Special

Rapporteur noted the precarity of the majority of the 130 houses in the settlement, exposing the community to particularly severe living conditions in the winter; the lack of access to drinking water; and the high rate of infectious diseases, particularly among children, due to lack of appropriate sanitary conditions. Furthermore, the community denounced the discriminatory treatment faced in their access to health services, including medical emergency treatment. Concern was also expressed at the poor school attendance rate among children, as the cost of transportation to the closest school was unaffordable to the majority of families, greatly affected by unemployment. In addition, under the pretext of difficulties with the Russian language, it was reported that Roma children attending school were placed in a separate school building, in a worse condition than the regular building for Russian children, thus hampering their integration with other non-Roma children. The Special Rapporteur also collected testimonies of several victims of violence, including those of an elderly woman and a girl who had been beaten by skinheads in St. Petersburg. The majority of those cases remain unreported, given the general mistrust towards the police, rather associated with inadequate protection, arbitrary identity checks, harassment and corruption than with protection and law enforcement. (para 55)

Education: The Special Rapporteur is particularly alarmed at the failure of education and the teaching of history in confronting and eradicating deep root factors of racism and xenophobia. The strength of neo-Nazi groups and the impact of racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic political platforms in Russia today give rise to the question of the way education and history have failed in the work of memory and value systems of the evils of Nazism and the enormous human price paid by the Russian people in decisively breaking the military strength of Nazi Germany. Education also seems to have deeply failed in translating the legacy of “friendship amongst peoples” into a more profound culture of solidarity and knowledge and appreciation of the history, culture and civilizations of Africa, Asia and the Arab and Muslim worlds. Those failures are fertile ingredients of ignorance and prejudice, and root causes of racism and xenophobia. (para 78)

The Government is encouraged to revise school curricula and school textbooks, including history books, to ensure that issues related to human, cultural and social advantages of multiculturalism are reflected. Issues of mutual respect, promotion of tolerance and also of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia need to be properly covered in school curricula and teacher-training courses. (para 93)

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UN Special Rapporteuron the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Leandro Despouy

(A/HRC/11/41/Add.2)

Country visit: 19 – 29 May 2008

Report published: 23 March 2009

Mr. Despouy identified the following concerns:

Detention: The law distinguishes between “detention pending investigation” and “detention pending trial”. At the investigative stage, the extension of the detention must be authorised by judicial decision within the maximum limit of 18 months (Article 109 paras. 3, 4). An appeal against such decisions may be lodged with a higher court. In practice, detention on remand is not employed as an exceptional measure. On 27 September 2006, the Presidium of the Supreme Court pointed to the following shortcomings in relation to the use of detention on remand: (…) 3. Detention of juveniles in the absence of exceptional circumstances and the failure to consider alternative preventive measures. (…) (para 35)

Juvenile Justice System: The Russian Federation has not yet established a juvenile justice system. In 2005, the Duma adopted in its first reading a bill on a juvenile justice system, including the establishment of specialised juvenile courts. However, the second reading of the bill has not yet taken place. Pilot projects for elements of a juvenile justice system have been conducted in a number of regions. Based on the positive assessment of these projects, a Presidential decree was issued on measures to improve the prevention of juvenile delinquency, focusing on social and psychological support. Currently, over 30 juvenile courts are operational in more than 18 entities. However, the absence of a legal and institutional framework at the federal level significantly hampers progress made in the regions. (para 92)

In order to assist the Russian Federation in pursuing and renewing efforts in the judicial reform process, the Special Rapporteur recommends that, with respect to the institutional and legal framework: (…) The draft law for the establishment of a juvenile justice system, setting a minimum framework for all regions, be adopted without delay. (…) (para 96-97)

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UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous people, James Anaya

(A/HRC/15/37/Add.5)

Country visit: 4-16 October 2009

Report published: 23 June 2010

Mr. Anaya identified the following concerns:

Education: While there are many positive developments in the area of indigenous education, problems remain. As of 2002, 48 per cent of indigenous people in Russia had only elementary education and 17 per cent were illiterate, compared respectively with 8 per cent and 0.5 per cent for all of Russia.12 In many communities, only between 15 and 50 per cent study their native language. (para 66)

Given the remoteness of indigenous settlements, most indigenous children are taught in boarding schools. However, in conversations with the Special Rapporteur, teachers shared the view that boarding schools are not an ideal model for indigenous education since they uproot indigenous children, physically and culturally, from their traditional environments and families. Some regional governments have explored educational opportunities that are better suited to indigenous communities than the boarding school model, such as itinerant schools, which travel with reindeer herders. (para 67)

More generally, the quality and relevance to the indigenous communities of the schools that serve them would be improved if those communities, especially the parents among them, had more control over the curriculum and administrative decisions. The school curriculum is determined by regional administrators who are required to follow a core federally defined curriculum for each grade. Indigenous children follow this curriculum, with an added indigenous language course. Regional administrators have some flexibility, and some schools try to recreate traditional rituals and teach traditional activities, but parents and local communities have very limited input into curriculum decisions. (para 68)

Article 14 of the Declaration states that indigenous people have the right to establish and control their own educational institutions, teach children in their native language and choose the manner of education that is appropriate to their cultures and communities. While there may be multiple obstacles to providing education to small and remote settlements, and communities that practise a nomadic way of life, there should be determined efforts to foster a flexible educational framework, allowing for stronger control by indigenous communities. (para 69)

Several non-governmental sources have pointed out that certain federal policies have had a negative effect on indigenous educational institutions. For example, the federal policy of “optimization”, which aims to consolidate certain municipal services in concert with the local self-government reform under the federal law “On general principles of local self-government in Russia”13 have resulted in school closings in many small settlements. The Special Rapporteur heard testimony about Baklaniha village in Krasnoyarsky Krai, and a Shor village in the Kemerovski Region, which remain without schools due to school closings. Concerned individuals and NGOs argue that such school closings leave no option for families with children but to relocate and abandon their communities. While the extent of this problem is unclear, school closings should be carefully considered in light of their potential disparate impact on indigenous communities. (para 70)

Additionally, in recent years, on the basis of the federal law “On Education”, many regions have started financing schools on a per capita basis, resulting in disproportionate disadvantages to schools in small settlements, and the elimination of positions for school psychologists, social pedagogical workers, or special needs teachers. In many institutions, extracurricular arts, crafts and performance courses have also been eliminated, and for certain courses, children in first through fourth grades are taught together. (para 71)

Further efforts should be made to strengthen educational opportunities for indigenous people, who as a whole in Russia have higher levels of illiteracy than other members of the population. The federal and regional Governments should support indigenous peoples’ efforts to establish educational institutions that best suit their communities. The Governments, together with indigenous peoples, should continue to experiment with new models of education more suited to indigenous peoples’ needs and priorities and also continue to improve the boarding school model. Mechanism should be developed to enable indigenous communities, especially parents, to have greater and more regular input in curriculum decisions for schools, and allow sufficient flexibility for parental participation in decisions regarding subjects that are taught, the language in which these subjects are taught and other matters. (para 92)

Reports of school closings and the negative effects of these on small indigenous communities should be thoroughly investigated and remedied, and any government policies that have the effect of encouraging such closings or reduced educational opportunities for communities should be closely reviewed. (para 93)

Health: Special attention should be paid to the well-being of women and children, and more data should be collected on women’s and children’s specific health and social indicators during the next nationwide census (scheduled for 2014). (para 96)

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Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed

A/HRC/23/34/Add.1

Country visit: 16 – 26 April 2012

Report Published: 11 March 2013

Children and museums: The Special Rapporteur found the Saint Petersburg project to introduce interactive tours for students and a unified membership card for the city’s libraries very interesting. The Special Rapporteur was impressed by the management of the State Hermitage Museum and welcomes its policies aimed at attracting more visitors while according priority to the research and educational functions of the Museum. Many educational activities cater for children and adults, and State support ensures the publication of quality books at more affordable prices (paras 34, 37).

Excursions are organized for school children. The Ministry of Culture estimates that children account for approximately 65 per cent of the 80 million annual visitors to the country’s museums. The Special Rapporteur appreciates the fact that, at least in some places, children and youth have free access to cultural or sports clubs in their own neighbourhoods. The Special Rapporteur further commends the authorities for their efforts to ensure a high rate of Internet connectivity for, cultural and educational institutions. In Altai Krai, all 1,216 general schools on its territory have Internet access. National e-libraries have been or are being established to provide free access to literature, and the Internet is available in most rural libraries (paras 39, 40).

Education : Even in Tatarstan, which stands at the forefront of the defence of local culture, people raised concerns regarding the difficulties of preserving an ethnic language. As indigenous settlements are in remote locations, most indigenous children are taught in boarding schools, and are therefore separated, physically and culturally, from their communities. The director of one of the two Kazakh national schools in Altai Krai confirmed that measures had been taken to help the community to preserve its culture and language and that, thanks to the support of Kazakhstan, textbooks in Kazakh were available. German, the second most important linguistic group in the region, is also taught as a subject at all levels of education. German may also be studied at the German / Russian House of Friendship in Barnaul.  (paras 45, 46).

Various interlocutors expressed their concern regarding federal reforms on education, reportedly passed despite the disagreement of many regions, in particular, the introduction of a new unified school examination. Reforms in 2009 removed the right to take State examinations in a minority language: students can study in another language, but must take the examination in Russian.20 In Altai Krai, however, it was decided to provide translations of test materials in local languages.(paras 49, 51).

Concern was also expressed by interlocutors that some regions are reluctant to ensure education in congruence with the culture of the peoples, and that declarations made at the highest level of the State are not always implemented at the regional level. This was reported to be the case in the Altai Republic. The Special Rapporteur was informed, however, that a pilot project was currently being conducted in some schools of the Altai Republic to allow for the study of indigenous traditional knowledge, and that a number of textbooks on Altai culture had been published (para 52).

The Special Rapporteur recommends that the authorities review the reform on the new unified school examination and the pilot project on the teaching of the basics of religious culture or secular ethics, taking into consideration the concerns expressed by representatives of minorities and indigenous peoples, as well as alternative proposals prepared by regional authorities (para 109).

Teaching of religious and secular ethics:  A widely discussed issue in the Russian Federation is a pilot project introduced in 2011 in 21 regions to teach the basics of religious culture or secular ethics, in which parents select whether their children will study one of the four main religions, world religions or secular ethics. The project has been implemented for the fourth and fifth grades, in 9,980 schools.Representatives of indigenous communities, for example in the Altai Republic, expressed concern that their spiritual beliefs were not an offered option and that Buddhism was being imposed on them through this educational project. In addition, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that this approach, rather than building greater cross-cultural understanding may actually divide children, as also noted by civil society groups, some public officials and bodies, as well as some religious leaders (paras 53, 55).

Teaching of history: An important aspect of the right to cultural heritage is the right to have access to one’s own history and that of others. The Special Rapporteur learned about several initiatives, such as the establishment of approximately 12 commissions comprising historians from the Russian Federation and foreign countries to elaborate guidelines on how textbooks with shared elements of history could be drafted in a more balanced manner, and governmental programmes encouraging school children to run school museums and research their own past, including by interviewing their community elders and displaying the results in student-run school museums (para 56).

The Special Rapporteur believes that the authorities should encourage children to discover the history of their own people in a multifaceted manner disconnected from “patriotic education” programmes. She is worried, in particular, that extracurricular activities on the history of the Second World War, which seem to be numerous, are associated with military clubs in schools and patriotic camps for youth, the latter involving significant numbers of students. She acknowledges the tragedy that the Second World War represents for the Russian people and understands that summer camps are organized for children on various issues. Having taken note of the response from the Government, she remains concerned, however, that the State programme for patriotic education involves not only the ministries of education, sport and culture, but also the Ministry of Defence (para 57).

The Special Rapporteur recommends that the teaching of history be disconnected from patriotic education, and that no competence be attributed to the Ministry of Defence in any educational programmes for children and youth. Noting with great interest the efforts already made in Tatarstan to teach history from a multi-perspective point of view, she recommends that the teaching of history enable all children to learn of the diverse histories and perspectives on the history of the various people and groups in the Russian Federation (para 110).

Persons with disabilities: The Special Rapporteur appreciates the adoption of an “accessible environment” programme, requiring that all sports and entertainment institutions be equipped for access by persons with disabilities, and an “inclusive education” programme, aimed at integrating children with disabilities into the mainstream education system.The Special Rapporteur commends the Altai Krai authorities for their efforts in this area, including the pedagogical lyceum for children with disabilities in Barnaul (paras 87, 89).

There is an urgent need to involve persons with disabilities in all policy formulation and decision-making relating to cultural activities. The requests of civil society organizations include specialized teachers and greater support for cultural activities in rehabilitation centres for children (para 90).

The Special Rapporteur conveys to the authorities the serious concerns expressed by many parents regarding the new “inclusive education” programme, which, they believe, requires progressive preparatory steps prior to implementation, in particular by providing schools with special equipment, interpreters and specialists; the training of teachers; adjustments to the curricula; and sensitization programmes to prepare the mainstream population (para 91).

In Tatarstan, children with disabilities who cannot attend regular schools are catered for through rehabilitation centres. The Special Rapporteur was impressed by the rehabilitation centre for children with disabilities in Kazan, which will probably become a model for the whole region. In rehabilitation centres, two months of attendance per year are mandatory; two additional months remain at the discretion of the centre. Parents request that centres welcome children for longer periods. For the rest of the year, parents try to provide educational and leisure activities to their children on a self-help basis with very limited means. These structures need more State support, including affordable accommodation (paras 92, 93).

In Kazan, when children with disabilities were invited to a special concert inaugurating the new puppet theatre, the theatre staff refused them entry, as they only had one ticket for both the child and the accompanying parent, who would seat the child on her/his lap. Finally, when allowed entry, they found that the elevators specially installed to facilitate access were not working. After climbing up four floors, they were informed that two people could not occupy one chair (para 96).

The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to consult with and involve persons with disabilities, including parents of disabled children, in all policy discussions and decision-making;  To consider hosting an international conference with neighbouring countries and civil society organizations, including parents’ associations from these countries, on the issue of inclusive education, so as to contribute to the development of best practices in the area (para 113).

Roma: Roma children reportedly have great difficulty in their access to quality education; they often do not speak Russian fluently, and these difficulties are encountered by Roma who are Russian nationals as well as non-nationals, including those who were born Russian nationals and have difficulties proving their nationality owing to a lack of documents. Access to education is difficult because schools are not suited to the needs of Roma children and are often insensitive to their cultural background. Roma children are usually not welcome in general schools. When special classes or schools are created for Roma children, a practice that seems to amount to segregation, education is of low quality, with no ethno-cultural component. Teachers working with Roma children do not receive special training. The Special Rapporteur encourages the authorities to create textbooks for Roma children that take into account their language and cultural background and to support the publication of bilingual books (paras 97, 98).

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people: The Special Rapporteur is also concerned that the Saint Petersburg Law of 29 February 2012 prohibiting “propaganda of homosexuality” among minors, and apparently similar laws in Arkhangelsk, Ryazan and Kostroma, exacerbate the situation. Similar laws are reported to be envisaged in other regions and at the federal level. The Government has stressed that these laws aim to prohibit the aggressive imposition of one group’s lifestyle and norms of behaviour on children, and to protect the health and development of children. However, it is feared that, in practice, the laws will lead to eliminating any expression of LGBT identity and the dissemination of information or artistic creations addressing LGBT issues. It is also of concern that, by dealing with the two together, the laws confuse homosexuality with paedophilia (para 104).

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Special Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers

(15-25 April 2013)

No report available

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Requested visits

Visits requested:

  • (Requested in 2004 and 2011) SR on human rights defenders.
  • (R in 2002) SR on the right to freedom of opinion and expression
  • (R in 1998 and 2009) SR on freedom of religion or belief
  • (R in 2005 and 2010) SR on toxic waste
  • (R in 2000 and 2008) SR on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
  • (R in 2008) WG on arbitrary detention
  • (R in 2009) SR on trafficking
  • (R in 2010) SR torture
  • (R in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012) WG on enforced disappearances
  • (R in 2011) SR on food
  • (R in 2008 and 2010) SR on HR and counter- terrorism
  • (R in 2011) SR on freedom of association and assembly
  • (R in 2013) WG on people of African Descent

Visits accepted

  • (Accepted) RSG on Internally Displaced Persons
  • (A) WG on transnational corporations and business enterprises (30 September – 9 October 2013)

 

Organisation: 
Child Rights International Network

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