RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Monitoring of IDPs and returnees still needed

At least 80,000 people are still internally displaced in Russia, more than 15 years after they were first forced to flee their homes. While large-scale hostilities ended several years ago, violence is still extensive in the North Caucasus and human rights abuses continue with perpetrators enjoying impunity. The economy is improving in Chechnya and reconstruction has brought impressive results in Grozny, but corruption and weak local governance continue to delay full recovery.

Over 275,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to Chechnya and North Ossetia, mainly since 1999, but most continue to live in inadequate temporary accommodation. Some returnees to Chechnya report they were under pressure to return from the local authorities, but promises of adequate alternative housing in Chechnya did not always materialise, while compensation programmes have been insufficient to fund permanent housing.

IDPs and returnees also lack stable incomes and some still face difficulty in obtaining and recovering documents needed to access their economic, social and political rights. The lack of documents limits IDPs’ chances of receiving property compensation, utilities subsidies, a full pension and other social benefits, and of being able to conduct legal transactions. Continued monitoring of IDPs and returnees is needed to ensure they can increasingly enjoy their rights on a par with their non-displaced neighbours.

Information on children in the report, includes:

• A positive development has been the restoration of the social benefit system across the region, which includes payments for children, veterans, and elderly, disabled and unemployed people. They are paid almost regularly and relatively reliably despite ensuing corruption (FEWER, 26 June 2009).
• About 80 per cent of children in Chechnya reportedly need some form of psychological help (UNICEF, 2006).
• UNICEF reported that 15,000 children have benefited from 31 psycho-social centres, and more are to be established (UNICEF, 2009; UN, 29 January 2009). However, there is a shortage of specialists in this area (WHO, November 2008). IDPs outside of Chechnya report that the psychological trauma they suffered needs to be treated, but is ignored as psycho-social assistance is seen as a luxury. There are two medico-psychological rehabilitation centres for people with forced migrant status, in Moscow and Krasnodar (FMS, no date,information accessed August 2009).
• All IDP children are entitled to free education within the mainstream school system throughout Russia. A small number of children in Chechnya do not go to school because of family issues, repeated change of residence, lack of residence registration or poverty (UNICEF, 2009).
• The main problems with schools are the lack of hot meals for children, lack of methodological literature and learning materials for teachers, inadequate training opportunities for teachers and a high teacher-student ratio (UNICEF, 2009). Currently, the government is repairing 142 out of 437 schools in Chechnya.
• The establishment of Child Rights Ombudsman’s offices in the North Caucasus is a significant development, but their capacity to monitor and report on child rights-related violations could be strengthened.