|
English Language Page
Recommendations
Recommendations to Relevant Government Authorities
In the legal sphere:
Reform the existing passport system to prevent it from being a mechanism for Russian law enforcers to express their racist or xenophobic sentiments (police monitoring of the residence registration regime should be repealed first).
Refrain from enacting Federal Law “On Countering Extremist Activities” and have it replaced with an effort to pass dedicated political measures aimed to combat extremism on the basis of the applicable provisions in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and other regulatory documents.
Amend the wording of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in order to narrow its scope. Imprisonment for offenses envisaged by Section 1 of the said article should be eliminated. Such punishment should be reserved for Section 2, which should read as follows:
2. Same offenses committed:
- with the threat of violence or use of calls to violence;
- with the use of calls to discrimination;
- by an official abusing his/her job functions.
Under the aforementioned Section 2, provision should also be made to allow for punishments not involving incarceration. Then, Section 3 could be added to provide for harsher punishments for repeat offenders.
Strike “the use of violence” motivated by “ethnic, racial or religious enmity” from the wording of Article 282. Replace this qualifier with wording applicable to all violent crimes. Have the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issue a directive for investigators and judges on the application of the relevant provision.
Liability of mass media and public religious organizations for breaching any constitutional ban on inciting hatred can be toughened in the following manner: 1) in cases relating to calls for violence and/or discrimination, the number of warnings needed to launch a deregistration legal action should be minimized to one advisory; 2) criminal or administrative court rulings on relevant articles should be equated with official warnings addressed to the heads of pertinent mass media or public organizations.
Federal Law “On Mass Media” should have wording banning the incitement of ethnic and other hatred similar to the wording of Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which reads as follows: “The promulgation or dissemination of social, racial, ethnic or religious hatred or enmity shall not be allowed. Propaganda of social, ethnic, racial, religious or language supremacy shall be outlawed.
Enact Federal Law “On Public Rallies and Marches” passed by the State Duma of the Russian Federation and endorsed by the Federation Council in 1995 but left unsigned by the President.
In the sphere of international commitments:
Undertake a focused effort to draft a comprehensive national action plan to meet the challenges as defined by the 2001 Durban World Conference against Racism.
Develop cooperative links with the following special procedures of the UN Commission on Human Rights: Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, and Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons. Invite those UN Special Rapporteurs to visit the Russian Federation, help them bolster their mandates, provide all necessary resources and support for their missions.
Closely cooperate with the Council of Europe and the OSCE agencies and mechanisms concerned with the protection of ethnic and religious minorities.
Act pursuant to the provisions of applicable international law and the Statute on the International Criminal Court and issue an official statement to the effect that any prosecution of a social group or community on political, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other grounds shall be regarded as a crime against humanity; have the Statute on the International Criminal Court appropriately signed and ratified.
Grow collaborative links with regional and international treaty-based and other structures and institutions committed to combat racism, xenophobia and intolerance; expand the use of international legal tools to prevent or combat manifestations of those social ills.
In the sphere of government pursuits:
Have high-ranking officials appear publicly to condemn specific manifestations of racism, nationalism and xenophobia.
Place an emphasis on the necessity of battling racism, nationalism and xenophobia in all stages of decision-making processes.
Assure the availability of effective means of legal protection to all victims of racism, nationalism and xenophobia, with those measures particularly including: provision of unconstrained access to effective arrangements for legal protection and provision of reliable measures to protect witnesses and plaintiffs; take all measures necessary to prevent repeat offenses.
Pass urgent measures to eliminate persecution of and prevent violence against the more vulnerable ethnic groups (particularly, Chechens, Meskhetian Turks, Kurds, Roma, Jews).
Introduce and augment the efficiency of measures to prevent and overcome racism, nationalism and xenophobia by way of promoting tolerance and inculcating respect for cultural diversity in the ranks of government officials, primarily those including law enforcers, judges, healthcare specialists and social security workers. Draft and enact codes of professional ethics for civil servants.
Run immediate and efficient reviews of appeals against unlawful actions by government officials (primarily those involving police officers, prosecutors or judges) that have offended the ethnic and/or religious identity of a given claimant. Ensure the use of sanctions against government officials found guilty of committing relevant transgressions.
Boost the efficiency of law enforcement efforts to prevent racist crimes; undertake immediate and thorough investigations into racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic or Caucasian-phobic crimes; have those cases considered and adjudicated in keeping with applicable law.
Make arrangements for a special training courses for government officials to improve their social awareness standards and to develop the capacity to treat members of disparate ethnic and religious communities with due attention and respect.
Promote dialogue between domestic law enforcers and members of the more vulnerable ethnic and religious minorities.
Grant Russian citizenship to former Soviet citizens permanently residing in the Russian Federation, including those without residence registration stamps in their passports. Notably, the current state of things in Russia makes this category of people particularly vulnerable targets for racist, xenophobic and nationalistic attacks.
Arrange dedicated public awareness drives aimed at informing the public about the pressing problems of nationalism, racism and xenophobia; pass measures to counter manifestations of such.
Take measures to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and other victims of genocide; annually mark Holocaust Day and the International Day of Struggle against Fascism and Anti-Semitism.
Introduce educational programs dedicated to the dangers of racism, nationalism and xenophobia; inculcate respectful attitudes to existing cultural diversity in the ranks of government officials, primarily police officers, judges, other law enforcers, military officers, teachers, employees in mass media outlets, healthcare and social security professionals.
In the sphere of education and public awareness:
Draft and pass measures to introduce training programs developed to help young people overcome prejudices leading to ethnic discrimination or racism. Some of the relevant objectives can be to:
- promote the spread of knowledge about existing cultural diversity and sustain the topic during the education of primary school aged children and teenagers in order to avoid building negative stereotypes and distortions that might lead to disparate manifestations of racism and discrimination;
- introduce requisite amendments to the current middle and high school curricula and educational programs to have them be reflective of the principle of cultural diversity;
- run public probes of middle and high school curricula, educational programs and materials to make sure they carry no stereotypes, prejudices or segragationism, incite no hatred and produce no racial, ethnic or religious animosity;
- pay special attention to the unprejudiced teaching of history, while being aware of the fact that certain specifics of Soviet and Russian history related to Russia’s imperial past, cruel colonization of non-Russian peoples, anti-Semitic policies and practices (including pogroms of Jews) and Soviet ethnic policies (including the one underpinning the deportation of whole ethnic communities) have largely provided for the ongoing forms of racism and racial discrimination in contemporary Russian society; help comprehensively research and distill the given historical experience and spread the right knowledge amongst the younger generation;
- help develop and introduce (by using obtained financing) specialized anti-racist training programs designed to prevent or overcome racism and inculcate young people with respect for cultural diversity that is beneficial to society as a whole;
- get juveniles (particularly those from ethnic minorities and socially isolated communities) involved in the effort to develop and implement such educational programs;
- have the subject of human rights included in training curricula for colleges and universities turning out professional educators.
Introduce a coordinated policy of countering racism, hooliganism, segregation and persecution in educational institutions, with integrated PTA-student checks being run on a regular basis to see if the established policy has been duly adhered to.
Have students, parents and teachers advised about what should be done to effectively tackle incidents of racism in schools and what legal means of defense there are against such racism, under any given circumstance.
In the sphere of cooperating with the civil society:
Collaborate with the NGO community in the business of education on matters relating to racism and xenophobia.
Seek to have NGOs substantively involved in the effort to implement the Federal Program “On Formation the Core of Tolerant Consciousness and Prevention of Extremism” by creating an effective mechanism which would allow NGOs to compete to have their programs included in this program.
Create and support informational programs designed to combat racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance on the federal, regional and local levels; promote the leading role of NGOs in the battle against those manifestations, while recognizing the crucial role played by NGOs in expanding public awareness and creating information-sharing networks for the least protected social groups.
In the mass media sphere:
Put an end to the practice of releasing government funds supporting mass media outlets engaged in the business of promoting any form of racism.
Help develop and introduce specialized training courses in the schools of journalism on the specifics of performing professionally in the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities; have the materials on such included in the general curriculum; attract relevant NGOs to help run those programs.
Promote the introduction of human rights and counter-racism training programs for mass media professionals.
In the public policy sphere:
Put in check any effort made by campaigning candidates to use racist or xenophobic slogans or catchphrases that can be circulated by actively racist organizations.
Take timely and sound steps to respond to, condemn and discontinue any manifestation of nationalism, xenophobia or violence on the part of government officials.
Also, we turn to the mass media community with the following recommendations:
Seek to have the community perceived as a family known for its cultural, ethnic and religious diversity; try to cover news-making events through the use of varied sources, including minorities, so that reports would truly be reflective of perspectives maintained by different social groups, including the ones that continue to be or can be made targets for discriminatory or racist attacks.
Draw the public’s attention to the pressing problems of racism, nationalism and xenophobia; help get the value of diversity recognized by society; seek to expose the underpinnings of racist pronouncements made by government officials in the course interviews, presentations, radio or television talk shows, etc.
Provide balanced reports on ongoing ethnic conflicts, with profound understanding of relevant cultural specifics.
Tell the public about incidents of racism and intolerance, while using trustworthy materials and reports.
Avoid stereotyped perceptions of members of cultural, ethnic and religious communities; while covering criminal cases, make no mention of suspects or defendants being affiliated with that or other ethnic group.
Work together with NGOs to counter nationalism, racism and xenophobia; report on success stories from the battle against these social ills.
Take into account the ubiquitous vulnerability of juveniles when they are targeted based on ethnic, religious or cultural grounds or when they are being recruited to join racist or neo-nazi movements.
Develop professional codes of conduct designed to set high ethical standards and prevent racism from being embraced by the mass media; seek to have all mass media outlets adopt such codes of ethics.
Collaborate with NGOs monitoring the mass media for manifestations of nationalism, racism and xenophobia.
|
