COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL

AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

Pre-sessional working group

2-6 December 2002

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

List of issues to be taken up in connection with the consideration of the fourth

periodic report of the RUSSIAN FEDERATION concerning the rights

referred to in articles 1-15 of the International Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/4/Add.10)

GE.03-40099 (E) 240103

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

General legal framework within which human rights are protected

1.Please provide any additional and updated information on the specific measures, legislative or otherwise, that the State party has undertaken to implement the suggestions and recommendations contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on the Russian Federation’s third periodic report.

2.Please provide specific information on the justiciability of the rights contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including references to case‑law on the subject.

3.Please give detailed information about the State organs responsible for the protection of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, giving a brief description of their work and the nature of their cooperation with relevant non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

4.Please give more information about the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner. What is its current status and how does it function? What is the difference between the Procurator and the Human Rights Commissioner? Please indicate whether the mandate of the Human Rights Commissioner includes economic, social and cultural rights.

5.Please provide updated information of the State party’s position with regard to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant.

Information and publicity

6.Please provide detailed information on the measures taken by the State party to inform the public at large, in addition to civil servants, lawyers, judges, adjudicators, police and prison officials, with regard to the rights contained in the Covenant.

II. ISSUES RELATING TO THE GENERAL PROVISIONS

OF THE COVENANT (arts. 1-5)

7.What is the position of the State party regarding the self-determination of all the peoples of the Russian Federation and what measures are being taken by the State party to ensure that all those people affected by conflict, including the Chechens, enjoy the economic, social and cultural rights contained in the Covenant?

8.What measures, legislative or otherwise, have been taken by the State party to combat corruption and organized crime?

9.What steps are being taken by the State party to ensure that Chechens who have been displaced from Chechnya, especially to Ingushetia, enjoy all economic, social and cultural rights under the Covenant?

Article 2.2 - Non-discrimination

10.What measures has the State party taken to eliminate discrimination in the access to social services on the grounds of residence registration and to protect the economic, social and cultural rights of people who lack registration documentation, especially homeless and stateless people? Please explain why some ethnic groups, including Meskhetians in Krasnodar Krai, have been denied citizenship and residence registration and how this affects their access to economic, social and cultural rights.

11.Please indicate what measures the State party has adopted to ensure that the indigenous peoples have access to food supplies and do not suffer from malnutrition and environmental pollution.

12.What steps are being taken by the State party in relation to the industrial development of lands belonging to indigenous peoples to ensure, pursuant to federal legislation and article 69 of the Constitution of the State party, which accords rights to indigenous peoples in their traditional land and water uses, including reindeer farming and fishing, (a) participation in decision-making processes; and (b) the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights under the Covenant.

13.Please provide updated information on the measures, legislative or otherwise, taken by the State party to combat discrimination against women, older persons and people with disabilities in the workplace. Have these measures yielded any positive results?

Article 3 - Equality between men and women

14.Please provide updated information on gender equality between men and women and the steps, legislative or otherwise, taken to improve the situation, particularly in the labour, health care, social security and education sectors.

III. ISSUES RELATING TO SPECIFIC PROVISIONS OF

THE COVENANT (arts. 6-15)

Article 6 - The right to work

15.Please describe the specific measures taken by the State party to reduce the persistent level of unemployment in the 48 territories of the Russian Federation, which is higher than the national average and among young people (paragraphs 40 and 60 of the report).

16.What steps are being taken by the State party to combat discrimination in employment against ethnic groups, asylum-seekers, released prisoners, Central Asians and the Roma people?

17.What measures, legislative or otherwise, have been adopted by the State party to prevent discrimination in employment against trade union officials, particularly women?

Article 7 - The right to just and favourable conditions of work

18.What measures, legislative or otherwise, have been adopted to ensure that the minimum wage and pensions are at least equal to the minimum subsistence level?

19.What concrete steps have been taken by the State party to ensure equal pay for work of equal value, given the fact that the average monthly pay of women in large and medium enterprises is about 30 per cent lower than that of their male colleagues (para. 99).

20.Please provide detailed information about the law entitled “Compulsory social insurance against industrial accidents and industrial diseases”. Please indicate what measures the State party has taken to address the persistent problem of industrial accidents, injuries and deaths and of working conditions which do not meet occupational health and safety standards.

Article 9 - The right to social security

21.What are the reasons for the State party not ratifying ILO Conventions Nos. 102, 121, 128, 30 and 168? Does the State party intend to ratify those ILO Conventions?

22.Please provide data on the impact of the Federal Act No. 178 of July 1999 which seeks to guarantee the population’s social rights, particularly with respect to the disadvantaged and marginalized groups of society, namely women, young people, pensioners, older persons, people with disabilities, families with many dependents and the unemployed.

Article 10 - Protection of the family, mothers and children

23.What specific measures, legislative or otherwise, have been adopted (a) to protect women victims of domestic violence; and (b) to address the problems of street children, child labour, child pornography and exploitation?

24.What measures, legislative or otherwise, have been taken by the State party to combat the problem of trafficking in women and forced prostitution?

Article 11 - The right to an adequate standard of living

25.Please describe the measures taken to deal with the increasing level of poverty in the State party.

26.What effective measures have been taken by the State party to ensure that a worker earns a salary that is sufficient to enable him/her and his/her family to enjoy a decent standard of living?

27.What measures have been taken by the State party to create favourable conditions for allowing the population to realize its constitutional right to adequate housing? Please provide disaggregated and comparative statistics on the number of homeless and of forced evictions over the past five years.

28.What steps are being taken by the State party to regulate the manufacture and sale of food and drink products in order to ensure their quality and safety?

Article 12 - The right to physical and mental health

29.What measures, legislative or otherwise, have been taken by the State party to introduce uniform standards and procedures of State funding in respect of health care and institutions, in conformity with the Committee’s General Comment No. 14? What steps have been taken to ensure the population’s access to the public health care services provided in the large cities? What steps have been taken to ensure the population’s access to medication which is of the required standard and has not been falsified?

30.What measures is the State party taking to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially among prisoners? What steps are being taken by the State party to devote more funds to combating HIV/AIDS?

31.What measures have the State party taken to combat tuberculosis, especially in prisons where the infection rate is reportedly 60 times higher than among the general population?

32.What steps are being taken by the State party to exercise control over its drinking water resources in order to ensure that drinking water is clean and safe, in accordance with the Committee’s General Comment No. 15?

33.What measures are being taken by the State party to protect the rights of patients in mental institutions, especially by ensuring that they are not subjected to any cruel or degrading treatment?

34.What measures are being taken by the State party to provide professional assistance for the development, treatment and rehabilitation of children with disabilities and to include them in mainstream education?

35.What is the explanation for the high incidence of abortions, gynaecological diseases and maternal and child mortality? What preventive measures have been taken by the State party to address these problems?

Articles 13 and 14 - The right to education

36.What steps are being taken by the State party to ensure that children of school age are in fact attending school? Have specific measures been adopted to address the problem of the drop‑out rates of the young at all levels of the educational system and what results, if any, have been achieved in this regard? What specific measures have been taken to combat the increase in the drop-out rates of the young due to migration flows, juvenile delinquency and homelessness?

37.What measures are being taken by the State party to ensure that proper sanitary facilities and drinking water are made available to schools in rural areas, in line with the Committee’s General Comments Nos. 13 and 15?

Article 15 - The right to take part in cultural life and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and the protection of intellectual property rights

38.Please provide updated information about the measures, legislative or otherwise, taken by the State party to ensure that the various nationalities and ethnic groups in the State party preserve their cultural identity, language, education and culture.

39.What steps are being taken by the State party to ensure that the poorest sections of the population have access to cultural activities?

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