Legislation of the
By Doris Widra
General Questions
According to Article 15 (4) of the Russian Constitution “the commonly
recognized principles and norms of the international law and the international
treaties of the
What concerns the preservation of traditional characteristics of
national minorities the Russian legislation is still lacking norms on the
rights of national minorities on the existence of ethnic minorities as ethnic
communities and the protection from assimilation against their will. The
legislation does not realize Art. 5(2) of the Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities and the recommendations of the Copenhagen
Document on the Human dimension of the OSCE.
1) LEGAL INSTRUMENTS AND MECHANISMS, LEADING
TO DISCRIMINATION
Today exists a whole series of norms in the Russian Federation that may
be considered as neutral at first sight, but in practice do lead to
discrimination. This is especially apparent in the passport system that is
formally not oriented towards certain ethnic groups but carries a selective
character, as one of the criteria for the denial of registration is “non-Slavic
looks”. As in this case, norms often leave too much space for interpretation by
executive organs and are only regulations on a very narrow level.
The system of documentation and registration of citizens (Passport
system)
This issue is regulated by the Federal law (25.6.1993, No. 5242-1) “On
the right of Russian Citizens to free movement, choice of domicile and
residence within the borders of the Russian Federation”, the resolutions of the
Russian government (17. 7.1995, No. 713) “On the affirmation of the rules of
registration and the recording of Russian citizens in the registration register
on their place of residence and domicile within the borders of the Russian
Federation and the register of officials, being responsible for the
registration” and the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation
(10.4.1992, No. 386) “On the affirmation of the provision on the order of
considering questions on the citizenship of the Russian Federation”.
Albeit the provision of the law “On the right of Russian Citizens to
free movement, choice of domicile and residence within the borders of the
Russian Federation” the registration has decisive character, and opens the
possibility for abuse, as the realisation of many basic rights (to work,
education, medical treatment etc.) depend on registration. Also the
constitutional court of the
Legislation on the legal status of
foreigners
Art. 62
(3) of the Russian Constitution holds that rights and freedoms of people and
citizens may only be limited, if it is necessary for the protection of the
basic constitutional system, equality, health, the rights and legal interests
of others and the guarantee of state security.
Many
provisions of the federal law “On the legal status of foreign citizens in the
The
legislation on foreigners in the
Many
provisions of the law “On the status of foreigners…” do not directly contradict
the Constitution and international treaties, but may also lead to
discrimination: e.g. people having lost their personal documents (or if they
have been stolen) have to leave the
Displaced Persons
One of
the characteristics is, that despite the Federal Law “On displaced persons”,
Chechens are not able to receive this status, because they are not seen as
victims of discrimination on ethnic, confessional or political grounds. In
general it is difficult to be acknowledged as refugee, as one has to proof that
there was a real danger basing on racial, religious, ethnical or political
reasons. Another serious problem is also, that refugees need the authorisation
of the migration service to move within the borders of the
2) MECHANISMS
LEADING TO LIQUIDATION OF DISCRIMINATION
Of
special importance in this context is Art. 19 of the Constitution of the
Principles
of equality and non-discrimination and the prohibition of discrimination in the
existing legislation
The Civil
Code (Art.1, 2) and the Criminal Code (Art. 4) provide for the equality of
citizens before the law and equal criminal liability. This is also confirmed by
respective provisions of the procedural codes.
The Law
“On education” holds in Article 14 (4) that education should contribute to the
mutual understanding of people, peoples, independent of racial, national,
ethnic, religious and social characteristics. Article 5 (1) provides for the
equal access to education independent of gender, nationality, language etc.
Labour Legislation
The legal
basis for the fight against discrimination in the sphere of labour relations is
first of all Art. 3 of the Labour Code of the
As a
whole the labour Code of the
liquidation
of all forms of racial discrimination (1965) and ILO Convention 111. It also
broadens the implications of Art. 19 of the Russian constitution for the area
of labour relations. One of the problems is that in practice there are still no
examples for the work of the state inspectors in cases of ethnic
discrimination.
Another
aspect is the high rate of unemployment especially among national minorities and
the small indigenous peoples. The law “On the employment of the Russian
Population” (29.12.29001, No. 188-F3) hold that especially in these regions the
employment has to be guaranteed under consideration of national and cultural
traditions (Art. 5). But this provision is rather general and is not reflected
in other provisions of the law. While the subjects of the
Fighting ethnic discrimination in
the framework of civil litigation according to the new Civil Procedural Code
In fact
all cases, relating to infringements of state organs and officials in
procedural relations fall under Chap. 24. and 25 of the CPC: cases on the
recognition of the invalidity of normative legal acts and cases on the appeal
against acts of state organs, organs of local self-government, state and
municipal officials. But until now there were no cases before the court
appealing against acts of officials that were formally lawful but leading to
discrimination. This category is regulated by the law “On the appellation at
the court against acts and decisions, breaching rights and freedoms of citizens
(27.4.1993, No. 4866-1). But until now there were no cases before the courts
were the mechanisms of the CPC were drawn upon.
Law “On the combating extremist acts”
In 2002
the law “On the combating extremist acts” was issued (25.6.2002, No. 114-03).
This includes acts of religious and social associations, propaganda and public
demonstration of Nazi attributes, public provocation to illegal acts and the
financing of illegal acts. Together with the introduction of this law Articles
280 and 282 of the Criminal Code were changed. On the one hand these provisions
can also lead to abuse, like the dissolution of religious organisations under
this heading, but there is also still no legal practice in this area, as
especially Art. 282 was never referred to by the courts.
3.) PROTECTION
OF NATIONAL MINORITIES
The term
“national minorities” is used in the Constitution but not defined. Art. 26 (2)
establishes the right of everyone to declare his ethnic affiliation and the
right to use his mother tongue, the free choice of language and Art. 68 enables
the subjects of the
Other
important legal acts are the Law “On the languages of the Peoples of the
Legislation on non-commercial
organisations
Article
30 of the Constitution of the
to the
Law “On social associations”, these associations may be liquidated if their acts
contradict their articles of association. This can lead to abuse.
The law “On national-cultural
autonomy”
Citizens,
belonging to a certain ethnic group can establish associations that may receive
the status of local, regional and federal national-cultural autonomy. This
possibility exists only for citizens of the
Some
provisions on the federal level do not hold detailed provisions , like this is
the case with Art. 19 (1) of the law “On national-cultural autonomy”. It holds
that the legislative and the executive organs of the federal level do allot
positions of the federal budget for the support of national minorities. But
these terms are vague and do not oblige the authorities to spend this money in
a certain period of time. This imprecise terminology makes it especially hard
for dispersed living minorities to receive financial state support.
Federal law “On political parties”
The law
“On political parties” (11.6.2001, No. 95-93) prohibit political organisations
established on the basis of ethnic characteristics. This in fact disables the
political activity of national minorities and above all, each party may be
dissolved that holds the slogan of minority protection (Art. 9 (3)). The law
“On political parties” therefore limits the political rights of national
minorities, guaranteed for in Article 15 of the Framework Convention for the
protection of national minorities.
But
according to the constitution of the
The
Russian Constitution stipulates, that every citizen has the right to be elected
for state organs and organs of local self-government (Art. 32). But this does
not sufficiently account for the particular residential peculiarities of ethnic
minorities, because the chance to elect representatives depends of the size of
the group, their settlement in different regions and their compact settlement.
This is of special importance as the law “On political parties” establishes
percentage barriers for elections. In practice this can hinder candidates of
minorities, living in a compact area, but being to small a minority, to be
elected. Because of this, this provision does not comply with Article 15 of the
Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities and is also not
implementing Pt. 9 of the Lund Recommendations on the effective participation
of national minorities in social-political life.
Legislation on education
Besides
the general principles of education the law “On education“ of the
Part. VI
of the Federal Programme on the development of education 2000 is providing for
the development of mechanisms for the realisation of the right of citizens to
choose the language of
education
and the beginning of realising measures to satisfy the educational necessities
for minorities.
The
Russian legislation is still lacking provisions that encourage the use of the
mother tongue within their cultural traditions. The Russian legislation does
not implement the principles of Point 19 of The Hague Recommendations on the
rights of national minorities in education. This contains the duty to include
the dissemination of the culture, history and traditions of national minorities
in complementary education. Also according to Art. 14 (4) of the law “on
education” education has to enhance the mutual understanding of people and
peoples independent from national , ethnic, religious or social affiliation.
Another problem is, that until now no provisions have been set up to clarify
the right of national minorities to set up their own educational institutions.
One aim
of the legislation in this area has to be to develop effective legal mechanisms
on the federal level to exclude the possibility of discriminative measures by
regional organs of state authority and organs of local self-government
concerning education.
Legislation on the rehabilitation of
victims of repressions
The law
“On the rehabilitation of the victims of political repression” (18. 10. 1991,
No. 1761-1) is the central regulation in this area. This law does not include
persons, having been repressed on the territory of other republics of the
Rehabilitation
includes the right to the restoration of former administrative borders, social
support and the right to the development of their own “national” culture. The
restoration of former administrative borders is in practice improbable, as this
is seen as a possibility to destabilize the federal structure of the state. There
is still no legislation prohibiting deportation or other illegal acts, like
expropriation or acts aiming at changing the ethnic proportions of the
population of a certain region.
4.) FURTHER PROVISIONS
OF THE FEDERAL LEGISLATION CONCERNING NATIONAL MINORITIES
Legislation, concerning the choice
of individual ethnic affiliation
According
to Art. 26 (1) of the Russian Constitution everybody has the right to choose
and freely indicate his national affiliation. The law “on the guarantees of the
rights of indigenous small peoples (30.4.1999, No. 82-F3) and the federal law
“On general principles of communities of small indigenous peoples of the north,
Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation (20.7.2000, No. 104-F3) are
also providing for the indication of the ethnic affiliation but the legislation
does not clarify the procedure.
The
indication of ethnic affiliation must not produce any disadvantages for the
individual person. But problems may arise out of not having the possibility to
indicate ones ethnic affiliation, as this may lead to the exclusion from
certain programs established for the benefit of national minorities. There are
also still no procedural mechanisms for the protection of the citizens free
choice of his ethnic affiliation.
Legislation on languages
The
Constitution, as well as the Civil and the Criminal Procedural Code do provide
for the choice of language and the right to a translator before the courts. One
of the main problems in this area is the provision of Art. 3(6) of the law on
languages that was introduced in 2002. It stipulates that the alphabet of the
Russian state language and the language of the subjects of the
Also
identification papers have to be written in Russian as the state language and
additionally in the state language of the respective subject of the
As a
whole the legislation of the
Another
problem lies within the use of languages in television and radio broadcasting.
According to Art. 20 (1) of the law “on the languages of the peoples of the
Article
10 (3) of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
stipulates that the Parties undertake to guarantee the right of every person
belonging to a national minority to be informed promptly, in a language which
he or she understands, of the reasons for his or her arrest, and of the nature
and cause of any accusation against him or her, and to defend himself or herself
in this language, if necessary with the free assistance of an interpreter. The
Russian Constitution does not contain any provisions on this issue, and there
are no free interpreters provided for in the Civil Procedural Code, but these
principles have been included in the federal law “On the court -system of the
The right
to the use of the mother tongue during imprisonment is not adequately
elaborated and from the existing legislation it can be derived, that only the
state language can be used. But as a whole the righty of imprisoned persons are
not sufficiently protected by the Russian legislation.
Legislation concerning compatriots
The
law “On the state policy of the
Legislation on local self-government
The
relevant legislation in this area are the Laws “On local self-government in the
ADDITION: LAW PROJECTS WITHIN THE RUSSIAN
DUMA CONCERNING NATIONAL-ETHNIC RELATIONS, JUNE 2003
• On changes to the Federal law “On
national-cultural autonomy”: tries to limit the number of autonomies to one per
subject of the
• On the authorised representative
of the Federal Assembly of the
• On the introduction of changes to
Art. 5 of the Federal constitutional Law “On the ombudsman on human rights in
the
• On the ratification of the
Convention on the rights of persons, belonging to a national minority
(CIS-Convention): there are doubts about the compatibility of the definition of
minority in this Convention with the Russian Constitution
• On the basic documents, proving
the identity of citizens of the
• On the state language of the
• On changes to Article 9 of the
federal law “On guarantees of the rights of indigenous small peoples in the
• On changes to Article 2 of the Law
of the RF “On displaced persons”: tries to approximate the rights of displaced
persons and refugees on other reasons; low chances to pass the Duma. There is
also another project, stipulating that a person returning to the former place
of residence losses his status of displaced persons
• On the ratification of the
European Convention on Nationality: still too many points to be set before
Convention can be ratified
• On the legal status of
national-cultural associations of national, cultural, linguistic and
ethno-religious minorities in the
• On introducing changes to the Law
of the RSFSR “On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples”: is trying to bring
law in line with constitution, as it stipulates for changes of administrative
borders.
• On the basic legislation of the
• On the introduction of additions
to the Federal law “On non-commercial organisations”: mainly directed towards
small indigenous people of the North
• On the breeding of reindeers:
establishes law like e.g. in
• On rehabilitation of Russian Germans
• On the Russian people: stresses
the special status of Russians in the
• On the national-cultural
development of the Russian people: concept of uniting the Russian people
• On the Tatar people: can be
compared to the project “On Russian People”
Basic
Recommendations of the Federal Working Group on Non-Discrimination and Minority
Legislation:
At the
moment the following aspects are of special importance for the development of
the legal aspects of interethnic relations in the
• A general amelioration of the
legal culture of the whole population of the country
• The training of specialists in
this area
• The elaboration of a consistent
terminology and academic definitions, which are also in accordance with the
internationally used terminology
• To assist in the development of
the Russian legislation within the framework of recognized principles and norms
of the international law.
• The inclusion of special
provisions in all federal legal acts on the principle of equality
(non-discrimination) and the prohibition of all forms of discrimination
• The amendment of the Code on
administrative infringements concerning the responsibility for the
-
Illegal preparation, distribution or storage of extremist materials
-
The commitment of extremist acts by officials, state and municipal civil
servants and physical persons
• The inclusion of special norms in
the Russian legislation on legal guarantees for the protection of persons,
having been subject to discrimination
For the
protection of national minorities the following aspects have to be taken into
account:
• The protection of the special
characteristics of the minorities
• A legal guarantee against forced
assimilation
• For the realisation of linguistic
rights the Russian legislation has to avoid norms limiting these rights, like,
as an example, the requirement that all state languages of the republics have
to be written in the Cyrillic alphabet
• International principles on the
protection of national minorities in political and social-economic areas have
to be adequately developed in the Russian legislation
In the
further course the Russian legislation also has to be ameliorated regarding the
legal basis concerning extremist acts and xenophobia.
• The Criminal Code of the
In the
area of education the question on education in the mother tongue is a very
serious one in
• A framework provision has to be
introduced concerning educational institutions for mother-tongue education. For
this aim the possibility of introducing various methods of distance learning
have to be carefully studied, especially regarding the languages of small
peoples.
The
peculiarity of the situation in
As far as
migration policy is concerned, it is necessary to strengthen its social and
humanitarian components and further develop its legal base.
• The Russian legislation has to
provide a legal basis for the social and humanitarian problems arising from
migration