Press release, 3.10.2018

Women’s rights in modern Russia, the prospects of he bill on the prevention of domestic violence, feminism in Russia, etc. – these are the topics that were touched upon during a round table with Alena Popova, a human rights defender and co-author of the bill against domestic violence. The meeting was organised by Yabloko’s Gender faction on 25 September. Galina Mikhaleva, head of the faction, chaired the meeting.

The situation with women’s rights in Russia in the 21 century deteriorated even in comparison with the 20th century: household work is mainly done by women, the average salary gap makes about 30 per cent, there is a list of professions that are banned for women, traditional confessions put pressure on women, there attempts to ban abortions, domestic violence was decriminalised. Violence against women is archaic in some regions, for example, genital mutilation is becoming more popular in the Northern Caucasus. What is more, women with children make over 60 per cent of people who live below the poverty line.

The main reason for this state of affairs is the absence of institutes that could ensure gender equality. Institutes like this function in the USA, Canada and other developed countries. There are actively developing in Japan, Mexico and so on.

Tn order to fight domestic violence Russia needs to pass a new law. A bill like this was developed and will be introjected to the State Duma this autumn. Alana Popova is one of the authors of the bill. The bill includes the following provisions:

– domestic violence must be defined legislatively in accordance with the WHO provisions

– introducing preventative measures to stop violence at en early stage including programmes on dealing with anger and domestic violence orders

– making domestic violence crimes part of the public prosecution field – the victim will be protected by the state. Police, not the victim, will look for evidence.

The world practice shows that laws on prevention of domestic violence are more effective than separate articles in criminal and civil codes. Laws like this were passed in a large number of countries in Western and Eastern Europe and the CIS several years ago. The experience of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Moldova, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and other countries shows that domestic violence was reduced by 20-40 per cent after the law had been passed.

The effect of the law not only extends to women but to elderly and disabled people who often fall victims of domestic violence too.

Alena Popova and her colleagues also plan to introduce amendments to Article 133 of Russia’s Criminal Code on sexual coercion. According to the human rights defender, the provisions of the article do not function and there is no clear definition of “coercion”.

Yabloko handed over the signutures in support of the bill against domestic violence to Alena Popova. The signatures were gathered by the Gender faction members.

“Campaigns like this change people’s mind set,” Galina Mikhaleva summed up the meeting results.