WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security:  0/16

Conflict Prevention:  2/16

Disarmament:  1/16

Displacement and Humanitarian Response:  2/16

Participation: 2/16

Peace Processes: 4/16

Peacekeeping: 3/16

Protection: 3/16

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/16

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 2/16

Implementation: 2/16

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 7/16

Human Rights: 0/16

WILPF/PeaceWomen themes covered:

General Women, Peace and Security: 0/4

Conflict Prevention:1/4

Disarmament: 0/4

Displacement and Humanitarian Response: 0/4

Participation:1/4

Peace Processes: 0/4

Peacekeeping: 0/4

Protection: 1/4

Reconstruction and Peacebuilding: 0/4

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: 0/4

Implementation: 1/4

Justice, Rule of Law, SSR: 3/4

Human Rights: 0/4

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In 2018, Russia neither reported on old commitments nor identified new commitments. 

2018: 

Military expenditure: $61.4 billion. 

UN Women Contribution: $0

2017: 

Military expenditure: $66.5 billion

UN Women Contribution: $0

In 2017, Russia was ranked 53 of 189 countries. 

Researcher's note: The 2019 Human Development Report will not be released until November 2019, as it is being significantly re-envisioned in order to "go beyond the dominant discourse focused on income disparities."

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Experts on Mission: 36 men, 5 women, 41 total. 

Individual Police: 19 men, 9 women, 28 total. 

Staff Officers: 5 men, 0 women, 5 total. 

Total, peacekeepers provided: 60 men, 14 women, 74 total. 

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Barriers to Engagement. As of early 2019, there were 216,810 civil society organisations in operation (according to the Ministry of Justice).  

In Russia, CSOs face a number of other government-imposed barriers, including burdensome reporting requirements and the state’s supervisory power over the civil society sector (which allows for interference with CSOs internal affairs). The government strictly regulates public mass events. Where protesters are involved, such regulation is often enforced through the use of excessive force. CSOs are held liable for organizers of public events who fail to inform citizens and government bodies about a decision to cancel the public event, who host unauthorized events and for filing notifications for holding a public event without indicating its purpose.

The 2012 foreign agent law, originally publicized and passed as a response to the US. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), has more widespread and significant domestic consequences than FARA. CSOs advocacy activities, where they draw the negative attention of the Russian government, are often considered “political activities,” which can lead to a CSOs inclusion on the “foreign agents registry”, fines and or jail time for CSO leadership. The act and subsequent amendments established a prohibition against all transactions involving finances or other assets to which an “undesirable organisation” (determined extrajudicially) is party, as well as a prohibition against the distribution of materials arising from relationships with “undesirable organisations.”

Spotlight: Grassroots. The National Center for the Prevention of Violence (ANNA), fronted by Maria Pisklakova (preeminent Russian feminist activist), is a highly active and highly effective regional organisation. Though its focus is limited to domestic violence, ANNA’s objectives are expansive: to assist survivors of domestic abuse, conduct research on and increase public awareness about domestic abuse, stigmatize domestic abuse and lobby for the increased enforcement and strengthening of bans against domestic violence. ANNA operates a domestic violence hotline, conducts trainings and a network of approximately 170 crisis centers. 

Gender-sensitive Training Objectives. Russia’s security and law enforcement objectives are not gender-sensitive. 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.   

The Russian Federation’s National Security Strategy. Released in 2015, “The Russian Federation’s National Security Strategy,” remained at the core of Russia’s vision for domestic security in 2018. This strategy points to an ambitious Russia that seeks international prestige through increased domestic attainment and which sees constraints on its ambitions—whether domestic, regional or international— as threats to be overcome. 

Russia's value-heavy framing of its security objectives is worrying, particularly where it is paired with appeals to the unity of Russian culture and morals. Within the document, there are 14 strong references to Russian “morals,” “morality,” or “moral values” and an equal number of strong references to “tradition”; there are zero references to gender and women.

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. As English and French translations of this strategy are not yet publicly available, PeaceWomen cannot offer an accurate assessment of its contents. 

PeaceWomen can, however, draw from reporting from Russian media and institutions friendly to the Russian government to note potential areas of progress and anticipate concerns surrounding its content. We can note that the development and publication of this strategy represents a step forward, signaling the Russian Federation’s desire to align itself with international norms. In earlier statements describing the strategy’s “areas of focus,” the Russian representative to the UN listed: “increasing women’s participation in political life and the decision-making process; improving their economic situation, including promoting entrepreneurship for women; creating conditions conducive to better women’s health; preventing violence and protecting women from it; and overcoming stereotypes about men’s and women’s social roles.” The regional chair of the Union of Women of Russia, in her remarks to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, has emphasized that the strategy is “based on the fact that women's rights are an integral part of General [sic] human rights.” These, too, are positive signs. 

Yet reporting on the contents point to a problematic focus on maternity, “traditional values” and the family. (In those same remarks, the regional chair of the Union of Women of Russia stated that in Russia, in 2018, women “... realize themselves not only professionally, they perform their natural function, the function of motherhood.”) PeaceWomen also notes with concern the Russian Federation’s political practice of encouraging the tokenistic participation of women to further the government’s own objectives rather than to advance gender equality and peace.

SIPRI estimates Russia’s military expenditure in 2017 at approximately $66,527,000 (higher in USD, but lower in percentage of GDP). 

In 2017, women comprised 15.8% of the State Duma and 17.1% of the Federation Council.

It is important to note that a number of women in positions of power in Russian politics express views that are anti-feminist.  

It is critical to note that discussions of Russian police officers are characterized by tokenism, gender stereotypes and sexism, with discussions surrounding Russian women police officers characterized by a strong focus on the physical attractiveness of these officers. Similarly, one officer has pointed to lack of gender balance in different divisions of policing. For example, in Moscow’s Patrol and Inspection Service (PIS), there were few women. One woman officer assigned to this division from the mounted police division (in which, she estimates, women comprise “roughly one third of the [mounted police] force”) stated that she felt like “an outsider” as one of the few women in a work environment dominated by men. 

Though women represent a majority of justices in Russia, the available data indicates that the higher the court within the judiciary, the lower the number of women justices.

According to the Council for the Efficiency of Justice, there were 14,813 women justices in “first instance courts,” 646 women justices in second instance courts, and 48 womenjustices in supreme courts in Russia in 2012. 

In 2014, Russia only provided data surrounding the percentages of women judges in courts of the first instance. Women comprised 59% of the judiciary in courts of the first instance. 34% of presidents of courts of the first instance were women, with 0% of women presidents of supreme courts.

Russia retains a number of sexist and gender discriminatory policies and attitudes towards women in the workplace, which remains gender segregated (despite a positive trajectory of improvement over the last twenty years). For example, in Russia, it remains illegal for women to lift weights over 10kg more than twice an hour when they’re at work, barring women from 456 professions across 38 different industries (including carpentry, plumbing, and public transportation, among other professions). Though Russian women are challenging these laws, the laws remained unchanged in 2018.

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In 2016, the Russian legislature decriminalised domestic violence, so that offenses that do not result in serious injury will be payable by a fine, and only second offenses will be considered a crime. In 2017, regressive amendments made to domestic violence law, which came into effect on 1 July 2017, release husbands from criminal responsibility — with some minor exceptions — for acts of physical violence against their spouses.

Russia has not enacted a comprehensive gender equality law, and “neither the Constitution...nor other appropriate legislation, contains a definition of discrimination or expressly prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex." In 2005, the Parliament Assembly of the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States adopted the Model Law “On State Guarantees of Equality of Rights and Opportunities for Men and Women.” The General Victim and Witness Protection Law was also enacted in 2004 and amended most recently in 2013. Although there are some law provisions prohibiting discrimination, they usually do not regulate gender discrimination separately. Russia has no law guaranteeing equal opportunities for men and women in employment or education.

Researcher’s note: According to the National Center for the Prevention of Violence (ANNA), Russia has “no established system of assistance to victims”of domestic violence.

The Russian government does not fully comply with the minimum standards* for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.

*Researcher’s note on applied standards: Our minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons reflect those outlined in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, which Russia signed in 2003 and subsequently ratified in 2004, and the United States' Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPRA), which aims to improve implementation of and fill national policy gaps related to the elimination of human trafficking. The United States' State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons reports, the primary source employed in our evaluation, assess the efforts undertaken by nation states surrounding the central aims of the TVPRA: protection, prevention and prosecution. For more detailed discussions concerning these standards, check out our resources below.

A systemic approach to protecting against sexual violence does not exist at the government level. In 2017 and 2018, hard-won legislative protections surrounding the criminalisation of domestic violence have been rolled back. 

Though figures vary across sources, the Russian interior ministry estimates that 600,000 women are victims of domestic abuse and 14,000 die from injuries inflicted by husbands or partners each year.

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).  

In 2018, there was some discussion surrounding government provision of social protection for mercenaries (private military contractors, or “PMCs”). These discussions resulted in neither amendments to existing legislation nor the drafting of new legislation.   

See above section on “Protections Against Sexual Violence,” for additional resources and discussion.  

Researcher's note: there is limited data surrounding women's shelters, support groups, counseling services and rape crisis centres. Guided by women's civil society, the Russian Federation should take steps to collect this data and incorporate their findings into government planning and action. 

Excerpt from the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report*: 

“...The Russian government did not provide funding or programs for protective services dedicated to trafficking victims. Without specific legislation differentiating trafficking victims from victims of other crimes, government agencies claimed they had neither the means nor authority to provide assistance programs specifically for trafficking victims. NGOs provided all protection services, including shelter, food, legal services, language interpretation, facilitating the return of documents or wages, and assisting in the resettlement or repatriation of 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. Authorities did not routinely screen potential victims seeking assistance at these shelters for trafficking indicators; in prior years, the shelter provided medical and psychiatric aid, and referred victims to international NGOs and other homeless shelters located in many of Russia’s regions. There were no reports of victims assisted in these shelters in 2018. 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.

Similar to the previous reporting period, the government took steps to limit or ban the activities of other civil society groups, including some dedicated to anti-trafficking activities. Further, the government’s efforts to exert pressure on NGOs through the implementation of restrictive laws also targeted those providing protective services for trafficking victims; the government continued to designate two locally registered NGOs working on trafficking issues as “foreign agents” and blocked one of these NGOs from a government-linked social media site in 2018. An unknown person attacked and stabbed the leader of an anti-trafficking NGO, inflicting non-fatal wounds. The “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 assist unlawfully present victims of trafficking.”

*See resource no. 2, below.

Total population of refugees, stateless persons, IDPs, and asylum-seekers: 201,389.