The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has adopted the concluding remarks of the 4th periodic report of the Russian Federation on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Having welcomed dialogue between NGOs and the official delegation, the Committee identified 27 ´negative´ and only 5 ´positive´ areas in the field of social and economic rights in the Russian Federation. (06-DEC-03)

The positive remarks all related to Russia´s application of the ICESCR in the Constitutional Court rulings, the adoption of the Federal Act entitled ´Political Parties”, the new Labour Code of 2001 and the ratification of ILO´s Convention 182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour) which took place on 25 March 2003. Along with that the UN Committee expressed concerns on a number of issues. The prime among these are the sustained defecits in social and economical rights among the people of the Chechen Republic, the precarious situation of indigenous communities, the gender inequality, the unacceptable unemployment rates and the combination of these with the low wage levels and the widespread poverty. In 2003, 33.2 million Russians lived below UN´s so-called poverty level.

On the 4th of December a group of human rights NGOs gave a press conference in Moscow presenting their observations and visions relating to the UN Committee´s findings on the Chechen Republic. The human rights NGOs, presenting their own report in which attention was drawn to a number of problems not addressed by the official Russian report, claimed to have influenced the latter into taking a more critical approach. Even so, significant differences between the two reports remain. For instance, contradictory to the State report, the NGOs´ concludes that ´no real progress has been reached in general in observation, protection and provision of economic, social and cultural rights in the Russian Federation in the 5-years period´.

-We do recognize several positive changes, primarily in the areas of pension and education reforms, – commented Natalia Taubina, the head of the HRH-Moscow and the Foundation for Civil Society. -However, if you look at many other areas you´ll recognize the deterioration. This includes the right to work, the right to the highest attainable level of physical and mental health, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to protection, especially of vulnerable groups, from discrimination. -When researching for our report, Taubina added, we did not strive to refute official information. All we did was to try to clarify the NGOs´ position so that the Committee experts would have the most comprehensive and objective opinion.

The NGO´s so-called Joint Alternative Report on the Observance of the ICESCR by the Russian Federation has been endorsed by the Network of Russian NGOs for the Promotion and Protection of Social and Economic Rights. Currently, the network membership includes 85 NGOs in 39 Russian regions. Three Moscow HRH members – Independent Psychiatric Association of the Russian Federation, Regional NGO “Right of the Child” and Moscow Helsinki Group – together with 30 others were actively involved in the research and compilation of the report, acknowledged by the UN Committee as one of the most impressive alternative reports ever.