My visit to Russia opened on May 6, 2015 with an opportunity to participate in a roundtable event on violence against women and gender issues in Russia and the United States. The event was held at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. This meeting provided an opportunity for exchange of information, ideas and research on violence against women, women immigrants to Russia, and a range of other gender issues. Over the next few days, I had a series of meetings with representatives from ANNA (Association Against Violence) including Marina Pisklakova-Parker and Andrei Sinelnikov. Marina is leading the working group in Russia involved in securing passage and implementation of Russia’s first domestic violence legislation. I also met with Mari Davtyan one of the lead lawyers who has been involved in drafting Russia’s the new proposed domestic violence legislation.
Marina Pisklakova Parker, ANNA and Leslye E. Orloff, NIWAP
At the roundtable my presentation focused on how collaboration and communication has evolved and improved in the U.S. between victim advocates and attorneys and Federal, state, and local government agency personnel since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. My presentation covered:
· How attorneys and victim advocates worked together with government officials in Congress on the Violence Against Women Act and advocates role in providing subject matter expertise to help federal government agencies implement VAWA in a manner that will effectively help domestic violence victims;
· Training opportunities in which advocates/attorneys serve together with government officials to train judges, police, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on VAWA’s immigration protections and the legal rights in the U.S. of immigrant domestic violence victims; and
· Collaborations taking place in communities across the U.S. between victim advocates and local police on U visa certification and the important role the U visa plays in promoting immigrant crime victim, community and police officer safety.
Presentations of particular interest included:
Andrei Sinelnikov from ANNA, a lead national organization in Russia on violence against women’s issues. ANNA runs Russia’s first domestic violence hotline, conducts trainings across the Russia on domestic violence issues for a wide range of professionals working with domestic violence victims and leads a network of 100+ organizations working on violence against women issues and women’s human rights issues in Russia.
Andrei Sinelnikov, ANNA
Elena Nazarova, from the Russian Presidential Academy made a presentation on women’s migration from Central Asia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries. She discussed the proportion of immigrant women from various regions that come to Russia alone, to follow husbands, and women who immigrate with their husbands and children. Many of the challenges immigrant women in Russia face are similar to what immigrant women to the U.S. experience. These include: balancing work and child rearing, access to healthcare, integration into Russian society and stress on the family for working immigrant women whose husbands are not employed.
Marina Malisheva presented findings on domestic violence research in Russia. Key findings included: most victims of domestic violence in Russia feel that they cannot expect to receive help from the police and that in Russia many still blame victims for the abuse. One interesting fact was that her research like early research in the U.S. found low levels of sexual abuse reported despite physical abuse rates of 35%. When asked what questions were included in their research to detect sexual abuse, I discovered that the low rates of reporting of sexual assault may have been related, as it was in the U.S., to the fact that many domestic violence victims answer “no” to the question did your husband sexually assault you, and answer “yes” when the question asked by researchers is whether your husband or partner has ever forced you to have sexual relations against your will. One of the most important parts of her current research were her findings that 83.9% of the Russian population see domestic violence as a human rights violation and want to see more legal options for victims in Russia.
Marina Malisheva and Leslye E. Orloff
Mari Davtyan is one of the lead lawyers in Russia involved in drafting Russia’s pending Violence Against Women legislation. The law will implement the international Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEDAW). The law will improve Russian criminal laws on domestic violence ending the current requirement in most cases that the victim self-prosecute the criminal case and be responsible for all evidence collection. It will also create civil protection orders for the first time as an option under Russian law. This roundtable provided an opportunity to discuss the pending legislation and share information about experience with protection orders in the U.S. that may be useful to the Russian victim advocacy community as they work through proposed amendments to the law.
Elena Nazarova and Mari Davtyan
For more photos from our visit to Moscow (me and Jim Roby) see the photographs section of this website.
More coming.... Leslye
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