Decision of the Bureau No 2024

10.04.2018

The Bureau of the Yabloko Party expresses its solidarity with [female] journalists who reported sexual harassment from Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy from the LDPR party, and Stanislav Govorukhin, State Duma deputy from the United Russia party and [film] director.

The reaction of Russian politicians, public figures and journalists to these statements shows that sexual harassment is not only permissible for them, but also perceived as a norm. Offensive, degrading behaviour towards women is regarded as compliments and courtship.

The victim is left with no choice: in any case, she will be charged with either provocative behaviour, or self-interest and a desire to gain scandalous fame. The right to refuse intrusive attention is neglected, and the victim turns into the main culprit of what has happened.

The mansplaining and even encouraging attitude of men in power to those who tolerate sexual harassment towards women (for example, such statements were made by Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, and Pavel Gusev, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets) and, moreover, the desire to distort the true meaning of harassment, cover the perpetrators and intimidate the victims (Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma) demonstrates transformation of immoral acts into a norm of life. The fact that the commission of the State Duma neglected the ethics of these cases shows that the deputies do not see the most serious problem and do not understand it.

At the same time, those who fight against agsexual harassment are persecuted. At present civil female activists cooperating with the Gender Faction [of Yabloko] Alena Popova and Anastasia Alekseeva are being harassed, they were detained in single-person pickets [that require no permission from the Moscow authorities] by the State Duma. The [Moscow] Mayor’s Office has already refused four times to approve a mass picket against harassment.

Sexual harassment represent a direct violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation: Part 1 of Article 21 (protection of the individual’s dignity) and part one of Article 22 (right to liberty and security of the person). The establishment’s response constitutes a direct violation of Article 45 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (state protection of human and citizen rights and freedoms).

Neglecting the citizen’s right to personal integrity and the actual refusal of the state to protect this right open the way for sexual crimes against women and children, domestic violence in families against the weakest and most vulnerable – women, the elderly, children, that is, against millions of our citizens. And this despite the fact that, according to Rosstat [the Russian statistical agency], almost 4,000 rapes and attempts to rape are committed in Russia annually, however less than 50 per cent of such cases are registered, according to the Interior Ministry. According to independent experts, only 20 per cent of applications from victims are registered by the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and criminal cases are raised in only 30 per cent of the cases.

We demand that the State Duma deputies Slutsky and Govorukhin resign and vacate their seats.

We consider it inadmissible to shift the blame for sexual harassment onto the victims of these actions.

We are calling on everyone to express support to journalists and civil activists and condemn the connivance of state authorities to violation of the constitutional rights of citizens of the Russian Federation.

 Emilia Slabunova,

Yabloko Chair

Photo: MPs Slutsky and Yarovaya