last updated 14 January 2009

Russian Federation - Current State of Domestic Violence Law

At the 2008 Regional Conference on Domestic Violence Legal Reform hosted by the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and The Advocates for Human Rights, Marina Pisklakova from the National Center for the Prevention of Violence (ANNA) gave a presentation discussing the lack of federal domestic violence laws in the Russian Federation.  She also offered a brief history of the efforts in domestic violence legal reform in the Russian Federation and recent successes in legal at the regional level, such as the Law on Social and Legal Protection and Rehabilitation of Citizens Suffered from Violence in the Family passed by the Arkhangelsk Regional Duma.

Russian Federation Passes Asset Forfeiture Law

On 27 July 2006, the State Duma (Parliament) passed Federal Law No. 153-F3 (in Russian), which allows prosecutors to seize the assets of defendants convicted of certain crimes, including those guilty of human trafficking.  This provision is found in Article 104.1 of the Criminal Code  (in Russian).  Asset forfeiture is an important tool for prosecutors because it can remove the money and assets that keep criminal enterprises in business.  This provision applies to crimes committed after 1 January 2007.  The U.S. State Department reported no known instances of this law being applied against traffickers in 2007.

Russian Federation Adopts Law to Protect Victims and Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings

On 1 January 2005, a new federal law entitled "On Government Protection of Victims, Witnesses and Other Participants in Criminal Proceedings" went into effect. (in Russian).  This law applies generally to all victims and witnesses, including victims of domestic violence, rape and trafficking in persons.  It establishes legal norms for protecting these groups of people.  Those protections include personal protection, issuance of new identity documents, relocation and protection of confidential personal identification. Prior to the passage of this law, Russian law lacked provisions obliging state actors to take specific steps to assist victims, witnesses and other claimants.

Russian Federation Updates its Criminal Code to Prohibit Trafficking in Persons

Effective December 13, 2003, changes to the Russian Criminal Code prohibit human trafficking.  The changes define trafficking as, “the buying-selling of a person or other actions committed for the purpose of such person’s exploitation in the form of recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of such person.” Offenders are imprisoned for up to five years; however, they can be imprisoned for up to fifteen years if any of a number of aggravating circumstances occurs, such as trafficking multiple persons, minors, or if the victim dies as a result of the offender’s negligence. Before this legislation was enacted, trafficking offenders were most commonly prosecuted under existing rape, slavery, and false documentation laws. There are reports that the law has not been comprehensive enough.