Russian Federation: Civil society 4/7

The problems the Civil Society in the Russian Federation is currently facing could be defined as the following challenges:

General public does not have a clear understanding of a role of the civil society organizations and therefore does not support civil society organizations (CSO).

This understanding of civil society and CSOs on the part of average citizens and the authorities can relate to their vision and/or experiences of public activities in the Soviet period when public activism meant either close cooperation with the state or being a dissident. Both interpretations mentioned above imply lack of trust to CSOs and NGOs, and sometimes fear, and as a result scarce involvement of community members to the civil society activities.

For example, most of the support that business provides to non-profit organizations is still focused in the area of supporting of people with disabilities, children with special needs and orphans.  It is because these types of activities are in a way “obvious” in terms of what are the vulnerable groups and do not require any extra defining of personal views and values, in other words they are easier to understand. 

This report is prepared by a group of experts under leadership of “ANNA” Centre for the Prevention of Violence. The Report covers areas of concern in regards to women’s rights especially violence against women with assessment of the state system of tackling violent incidents against women, hence the emphasis in the report on the analysis of the current law and practice.

The monitoring was conducted in Russia in 2010—2015. The monitoring results do not claim to be comprehensive; however, they do provide a general assessment of the situation, identify key problems and trends, evaluate the steps taken to resolve them and analyse existing obstacles. The list of violent incidents contained in the report is neither exhaustive nor representative; however it is a vivid illustration of the nature and scope of violence committed against women in Russia.

 Drawing by Violeta Doval Henández