UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS RUSSIA ABANDON "LIST OF EXTREMIST MATERIALS" AND INTRODUCE OTHER CHANGE IN REPRESSIVE LAWS AND PRACTICE
Portal-Credo.Ru, 30 August 2017
The Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations adopted on 25 August a recommendation on a report from the Russian federation. According to the document, which the Sova Center for News and Analysis quotes, the committee is recommending to Russia to adopt finally complex antidiscrimination legislation and to bring current rules mentioning discrimination, including article 136 of the Criminal Code of the RF, into conformity with its own international obligations.
The committee notes that the definition of "extremist activity" and procedures for banning materials in the RF are, as before, extremely indefinite. The committee recommends to the RF to abandon the maintenance of the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
The committee also expressed concern over law about "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations."
The committee asks for making more precise the definition of "extremist activity" and articles 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code and also for making more precise laws about "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations" so that they will not interfere with legal activity of non-commercial organizations.
Welcoming the decrease in the number of hate crimes, the committee notes that they remain a problem, as is also the inflaming of hatred, including that by politicians.
The committee also recommended to Russia to concentrate efforts on combating specifically hate crimes, including those on the part of neo-nazis and cossacks, and to train police in skills of antidiscrimination and in how to avoid racial profiling in their work.
Earlier, on 3-4 August, within the context of the 93rd session of the committee, Memorial, KrymSOS, and the Sova center, along with the International Federation for Human Rights, presented an alternative report. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 August 2017)
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