WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security:  2/16

Conflict Prevention:  1/16

Disarmament:  2/16

Displacement and Humanitarian Response:  1/16

Participation: 0/16

Peace Processes: 0/16

Peacekeeping: 2/16

Protection: 0/16

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 1/16

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 1/16

Implementation: 1/16

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 2/16

Human Rights: 0/16

On average Russia covered  6 % of WPS concepts in the open debates in 2019, lowest among the P5 countries. While Russia made some references to disarmament, their statements on women’s participation particularly in peacekeeping missions lacked substance and sometimes reinforced gender stereotypes. 

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/2

Conflict Prevention:0/2

Disarmament: 2/2

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/2

Participation: 0/2

Peace Processes: 0/2

Peacekeeping: 0/2

Protection: 0/2

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/2

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/2

Implementation: 0/2

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 1/2

Human Rights: 0/2

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention:0/1

Disarmament: 0/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/1

Participation: 0/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 0/1

Protection: 0/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 0/1

Human Rights: 0/1

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/1

Conflict Prevention:0/1

Disarmament: 0/1

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 1/1

Participation: 0/1

Peace Processes: 0/1

Peacekeeping: 0/1

Protection: 0/1

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/1

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/1

Implementation: 0/1

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 0/1

Human Rights: 0/1

In 2019, Russia neither reported on old commitments nor identified new commitments. 

In 2018: 

Military expenditure in 2018 : $61.4 billion. 

UN Women Contribution in 2018: $0

In 2018, Russia was ranked 54 of 189 countries. 

Researcher’s Note: The figures used above are from the 2019 Human Development Report which has the rankings for 2018. The 2020 Human Development Report is not published as of October 2020. Consultations have been scheduled till December 2020 and “the work on the 2020 HDR will continue through the summer and fall”.

In 2018, Russia was ranked 75 among 149 participating countries.

Researcher’s note:  In 2019, WEF published the Gender Gap Report 2020 instead of a Gender Gap Report 2019. This was done to change the launch of their Gender Gap Report series to the first quarter of every year.  The above-mentioned data reflects the rank tabulated using sources from 2019 as indicated in the report (see resource 1). 

Researcher’s Note: Russia has acceded to the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.  

Experts on Mission: 28 men,  3 women, 31  total 

Police: 26 men, 6 women, 32 total 

Staff: 14 men,  3 women, 17 total 

Total peacekeepers provided: 68 men, 12 women, 80 total

The operations with the most Russian personnel are UNMISS (South Sudan), MINURSO (Western Sahara), and MINUSCA (Central African Republic). 

Researcher’s Note: While all the Permanent Five countries focus on peacekeeping as an important element of the WPS agenda and to tackle sexual violence in conflict settings, WILPF believes that to fully prevent all forms of sexual violence it is essential to address the root causes of violence, including structural inequalities, discrimination and patriarchal norms. 

While Russian peacekeepers weren’t involved in SEA in the reported cases in 2019, Russia has actively tried to cut the number of U.N. human rights officials attached to the U.N. missions, threatening the safeguards to address sexual abuse in U.N. peacekeeping. 

The Foreign Agent Law of 2012 has severe implications for civil society and NGOs. The law states that organizations receiving foreign funding must register as “foreign agents.” Fines and other bureaucratic hurdles are imposed on CSOs that do not comply. According to the most recent data available, Russia’s Justice Ministry has designated 158 groups as “foreign agents,” and over 30 groups have shut down. The organizations targeted under this law include groups working on human rights, the environment, LGBTI+ issues, and health issues, groups that do polling about social issues. 

The freedom house report scored Russia, 0 out of 4 in terms of freedom of NGOs in 2019. According to the report, “Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and journalists remained under severe threat throughout 2019. The government continued to harass them by branding them as foreign agents or undesirable organizations, fining them, and intimidating them with police raids and arrests. LGBT+ residents and activists were targeted with renewed campaigns of violence and intimidation. The year (2019) began with a crackdown on a group of LGBT+ social media users in Chechnya, leading to multiple arrests and two deaths at the hands of police. In the summer, activist Yelena Grigoryeva was murdered in St. Petersburg, deepening fears over an anti-LGBT+ hit list.”

Spotlight. The consortium of women's non-governmental organizations , operating since 1993, includes over 100 NGOs in Russia that work to protect the rights and interests of women. They  advocate the improvement of legislation, and monitor the observance of the constitutional right to equal opportunities. In 2017, they launched the Domestic Violence Victim Assistance Center project with financial support from the Presidential Grants Fund. The consortium is the only organization in Russia to provide legal aid to victims of domestic violence. They receive funding for various projects through grants and donations.

Russian security and law enforcement institutions do not assess progress in integrating gender perspectives across its security sector or even within specific programs, create recommendations for improvement, conduct follow-ups to monitor the implementation of these recommendations. Russia does not engage civil society to provide gender perspectives on the security sector. 

A UNSCR 1325 National Action Plan has not been developed by Russia as of 2019. In 2017, Russia announced the launch of its “national strategy of actions in the interests of women 2017-2022," to be implemented in two phases. The first phase (2017-2018) was to focus on the development of mechanisms needed for implementation of this strategy, and the second phase (2019-2022) was to focus on the implementation of measures to strengthen women’s position in the political, economic, social and cultural fields. 

In 2019,  the project “Co-operation on the implementation of the Russian Federation National Action Strategy for Women (2017–2022)” was launched. It will be implemented by the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to SIPRI, in 2019 Russia’s Military Expenditure was $ 65.1 billion. Russia’s military spending increased by 4.5% and its military burden rose from 3.7% of GDP to 3.9%. Russia is also the fourth largest military spender in the world. 

In 2018, women comprised 15.8% of the State Duma and 17.1% of the Federation Council.

In 2018, 9.7% of ministerial positions were held by women in Russia. 

The Russian police are the primary law enforcement agency in Russia. 

In 2019, according to the Russian Internal Ministry, among a total of 740,000 police officers, about 30 per cent are women. 

The 2018 report released by the Council for the Efficiency of Justice indicates that 60% of the total number of professional justices are women in Russia. Though Russia meets the criteria for equal participation of women in the judiciary, the data indicates that there are fewer women in the higher courts of the judiciary. 

Researcher’s Note: There is lack of recent data available on the participation of women in the judiciary in Russia. 

The following figures provide additional insight into women’s participation, standing and experience within the labour force in Russia in 2019: 

• The estimated earned income per year (US$): $ 19,000 for women; $ 32,800 for men.   
• Legislators, senior officials and managers: 41.8% for women; 58.2 % for men.
• Professional and technical workers: 62.4 % for women; 37.7 % for men.

Russia granted the right to vote to all men and women in 1917. The Soviet Constitution of 1936 declared men and women to be equal and introduced paid maternity leave and free child care in the workplace. However, in reality this right is being violated: while signing employment contracts women are forced to guarantee “absence of possible pregnancy” during certain periods of time and if they become pregnant they don’t receive any benefits or even are fired. 

The Russian Constitution does not define discrimination and does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. In 2020, the State Duma introduced a draft law that further limits the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Russia. 

While in the past, multiple draft laws and bill have been introduced regarding discrimination against women in Russia, they were not adopted in the final stage. The law on the prevention of domestic violence was not passed, and there is still no law against discrimination in the labour market in Russia. 

A federal law adopted in 2018, was aimed at improving the judicial system, ensuring citizen’s access to justice, its maximum openness and transparency, as well as the implementation of the principle of independence and objectivity when passing court decisions. 

“The Constitution of the Russian Federation allocates access to justice as the right of a citizen who has suffered, in particular, from criminal encroachment. The Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, adopted in 2001, aims to solve the problem of accessibility justice in criminal cases. However, the current state of the Russian judicial system makes it difficult for citizens to access justice in a broad sense of the word. Judicial procedures do not sufficiently provide access to justice as victims of crime and malfeasance, and the accused who consider themselves innocent.”

The Government of Russia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. 

“The government maintained negligible efforts to protect victims. As in previous years, the government did not provide funding or programs for protective services dedicated to trafficking victims. The law did not specifically define who is a trafficking victim or differentiate trafficking victims from victims of other crimes; experts noted this hindered identification measures and limited access to victim services. NGOs provided all protection services, including shelter, food, legal services, basic medical and psychological support, interpretation, facilitating the return of documents or wages, and assisting in the resettlement or repatriation of victims, although few were able to provide specialized assistance specifically for trafficking victims. The last dedicated trafficking shelters closed in 2015 due to lack of funding; however, government-funded homeless shelters could accommodate Russian and foreign victims.”

Over 40 civil society organizations in Russia provide protections to victims of domestic violence. However, in Russia’s patriarchal society domestic violence remains a taboo, with no laws on domestic violence and lack of support from the government and law enforcement agencies to protect victims. In 2019, an attempt to criminalize domestic violence in Russia, backed by human rights defenders and civil society activists, was heavily opposed by the Russian Orthodox Church and public alike. 

The Russian Federation’s federal law on veterans is not gender-sensitive, although it provides regulations on services and other rights awarded to all military veterans (including women).  However, in 2019, Russian veterans continued to face high levels of unemployment, lack of government support and difficulties integrating with the society. 

Russia does not have a specific law of domestic violence despite its ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2004, but it has not ratified the Istanbul Convention. Since 2017, violence that does not result in lasting harm has been decriminalized and stated as misdemeanour for first-time offenders. Particularly, under the Administrative Code, only a fine is imposed for intimate partner violence instead of a prison sentence. 

According to Human Rights Watch, “each year at least 12,000 women in Russia die at the hands of their abusers”. In addition to major legal gaps in providing protection to victims of domestic violence, Russia also has a lack of protection orders and inadequate police and judicial responses. 

In 2019, Russia had a human trafficking hotline. While shelter(s) for victims do exist, due to absence of government support and Russia’s lack of cooperation with civil society that runs these shelters, Russia does not get marked for the “human trafficking shelters” criteria. Moreover, some of these shelters are run by the Russian Orthodox Church, which holds regressive views on gender-related issues. 

Excerpt from the 2020 Trafficking in Persons report: 

“A shelter “for women in difficult life situations,” run by the Russian Orthodox Church, continued to accept victims and offered them food, housing, and psychological care, although not medical assistance; the government did not provide financial support for the shelter. There were limited examples of government cooperation with civil society. Despite the lack of formal cooperation, NGOs reported working with some local government-run centers to provide assistance to potential victims on an ad hoc basis. Similar to previous reporting periods, the government took steps to limit or ban the activities of civil society groups, including some dedicated to anti-trafficking activities, through measures such as “foreign agent” laws. 

“Yarovaya” package of anti-terror laws made it a crime for individuals or organizations to provide material assistance to people considered to be in Russia illegally; authorities could prosecute NGOs who assisted unlawfully present victims of trafficking. 

Authorities reportedly pressured some victims to cooperate in investigations without any offer of protection. Although informal cooperation between law enforcement and NGOs at the local level resulted in some victims receiving limited services, NGOs reported a significant number of cases go unreported due to the lack of a formal referral mechanism, victims’ fears, and the lack of government assistance to victims.” 

In 2019, the Russian government hosted 112,100 “people of concern”, 38% of them were refugees, 37% held temporary asylum status and 0.4% had Convention refugee status. 42,433 people were refugees, which was a 45.17% decline from 2018. Around 76% of refugee status holders were Syrian, Afghan, Georgian, Yemeni and other nationals, while 24% of refugee status holders were from Ukraine. Russia also hosted 1,500 asylum seekers and 68,200 stateless persons. 

Russia’s law enforcement and courts are known to work in synergy to block applications from international protection regardless of their circumstances. In 2017 there were only 598 recognized refugees living in Russia and in 2016, the refugee recognition rate was only 3%. As of January, 2019, officially recognized refugees were 572 people.