Human rights in Russia

As a successor to the Soviet Union the Russian Federation remains bound by such human rights instruments, adopted by the USSR, as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (fully). In the late 1990s it also signed up to the European Convention of Human Rights (with reservations) and from 1998 onwards the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg became a last court of appeal for Russian citizens from their national system of justice.

According to Chapter 1, Article 15 of the 1993 Constitution these embodiments of international law take precedence over national legislation. From the time of Vladimir Putin's second term as President (2004-2008), however, there were increasing reports of human rights violations and since the 2011 State Duma elections and Putin's resumption of the Presidency in spring 2012 there has been a legislative onslaught on many international and constitutional rights, e.g. Article 20 (Freedom of Assembly and Association) of the International Declaration of Human Rights, embodied in Articles 30 and 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (1993). A law was passed in December 2015, that would give national legislation precedence over international legal commitments. It has yet to be invoked.

As a member of the Council of Europe and a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia has international obligations related to the issue of human rights. In the introduction to the 2004 report on the situation in Russia, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, noted the "sweeping changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union undeniable."Vladimir Lukin, former Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, invariably characterized the human rights situation in Russia as unsatisfactory, while acknowledging that building a law-governed State and civil society in such a complex country as Russia would be a hard and long process.

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