Esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich!
All-Russian Associations of Women’s Non-governmental Organizations – Consortium of Women’s Non-governmental Organizations is bringing greetings on the occasion of your election to second term in the high office of President of Russia. We hope that during your stay in this position Russia will advance forward as a modern country with stable and developed economy, stable political system and strong civil society.
Consortium – the association of over 160 women’s organizations from 52 regions of Russia, considers vital to draw your attention as a guardant of RF Constitution to systemic and regular violation of women’s rights in our country and women discrimination in everyday practices.
RF Constitution (Art.2) declares human rights as the key value for our society, the principle of equal opportunities of men and women in realization of their human rights and freedoms (Art.19, p.3), considers international agreements signed and ratified by the Russian Federation as part of the national legislation, obligatory for implementation (Art.15, p.4). Among these agreements are Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on Political, Economic and Cultural Rights and European Social Charter. All these agreements hold provisions forbidding gender discrimination. Still, according to our data, also substantiated in the course of monitoring conducted by Moscow Helsinki Group in 2003, women’s discrimination is typical for all spheres of Russian life.
Thus, contrary to commitments made by Russia in signing the above listed international agreements, in the Russian Federation:
There are no women among members of Government.
There are no (and have never been) women in Security Council.
There are no women among Authorized Representatives of RF President in federal districts.
There is only 1 woman among heads of 89 RF regions.
There are only 7 women among 178 members of the Federation Council of RF Federal Assembly.
There are 44 women among 450 deputies of RF State Duma.
There are only 4 women among 27 Ombudsmen in RF regions.
Federal law “On Political Parties” (Art. 8, p.4) stipulates a legal norm which obliges political parties to create equal conditions for men and women in formation of their governing bodies and in nomination of candidates to elected positions.
Still, RF Ministry of Justice continues to register political parties without regard to this norm. No wonder there are no any women among leaders of political parties represented in the acting State Duma.
During parliamentary election of 2003 political parties nominated only 10-12% of women in their federal lists, and supported similar amount of women in single-seat electoral districts. Central Election Committee also disregards the blatant violation of the norms of Russian legislation and international agreements.
There is also other evidence of gender discrimination in our country. Thus, RF Constitution and, subsequently, Labor Code of Russia declare equal pay for equal work. But even official statistics demonstrates that women’s average salaries make up less than 70% of men’s salaries. By expert data, women’s average salaries equal half of men’s salaries regardless of the fact that women in general are better educated than men are.
We are most seriously concerned by discriminatory provisions of the draft pension reform. Thus, it is planned to include only 3 years into the overall work record of mothers as a period for taking care of all children, to which they have given birth. This will result in that the law will oblige people to have not more than 2 children (1,5 years for maternity leave for each child), and means regulation of birth rate by economic means. This approach:
Violates women’s right to give birth of any amount of children,
Undermines official state policies aimed at overcoming demography crisis by way of increasing birth rate;
Demonstrates disrespect to motherhood: the period of 3 years allotted by law to motherhood is much shorter than the labor record of 5 years giving the right to minimal pension.
Consequently, with majority of women pensions will not exceed 45-50% of men’s pension for a variety of reasons, among them:
salaries of majority of women make up less than 70% of men’s salaries
maternity leaves exceeding 3 years are not included into the work record for calculating future pension size;
women retire 5 years earlier than men;
after retirement, women’s life span (used for calculating pension size) is 12 years longer than among men.
Evidently, these reasons are preconditioned by the state’s targeted discriminatory policies.
We are seriously concerned about absence in Russia of national machinery for monitoring and eliminating gender discrimination. Russia committed to establish the national machinery at IY World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) in order to monitor implementation of relevant international agreements.
The first attempt to establish such a machinery was made back in 1993: by decree of RF President B.Yeltsin, Commission of Women, Family and Demographic Issues was set up under RF President, but was disbanded by your decision in September 2000, shortly after UNO celebrated “Beijing +5” anniversary.
In addition, in 1995, following the decisions of Beijing Conference, Commission on Improvement of the Status of Women was set up under RF Government. It was traditionally headed by Deputy Chair of RF Government in charge of social issues (consecutively O.Sysuev, V.Matvienko and G.Karelova). The new Chair of RF Government also disbanded this commission.
During the same period of time Round Table of women’s non-governmental organizations in the Ministry of Labor and Social Development served as a channel for cooperation among civil society institutions and the authorities. The Ministry is non-existent any longer, and the Round Table either.
Following the decisions of 1995 Beijing Conference, RF Government adopted two National Plans towards Improvement of the Status of Women (for 1996-2000 and 2000-2004). Various federal agencies were responsible for their implementation, now no one is responsible.
The listed facts are indicative of comprehensive and systematic violation of women’s rights in the Russian Federation.
Mister President!
You have repeatedly highlighted the importance of observing human rights, development of civil society and democratic initiatives in our country. Clearly, the set goals are impossible to achieve without involvement of women, which make up 53% of the population of Russia. Attempts to build civil society in Russia only for male citizens are bound to fail.
On behalf of women of Russia Consortium of Women’s Non-governmental Organizations calls upon you, Mr. President, to consider observance of women’s rights and elimination of gender discrimination as priority tasks for our country.
We hope for your understanding.
Respectfully,
E.Yershova
President,
Consortium of Women’s Non-governmental Organizations,
Member, Commission on Human Rights under RF President,
13.05.2004
P.S. Copy of the Open letter was sent to Head of RF Government, leaders of both chambers of RF Federal Assembly, heads of relevant committees of the State Duma, Head of Commission on Human Rights under RF President, RF Ombudsman, mass media, including Internet channels, and to non-governmental organizations.
