C. Integrity
3. Republic of Chechnya
3.3 State protection
3.3.8 Access to protection for women
RJI and CAN, a Russian NGO network specialising in women’s rights, conclude in their report on the RF’s implementation of CEDAW (873) that ‘the majority of women in the North Caucasus do not benefit from the protections of formal, secular Russian law in the sphere of family life’ (874). According to Ekatarina Sokirianskaia, project director Russia & North Caucasus at ICG, women in the North Caucasus
(865) ICG, The North Caucasus: The Challenges of Integration (I), Ethnicity and Conflict, 19 October 2012, p. 5.
(866)Historian who specializes in Chechnya and has conducted field research in Chechnya, email response, 2 November 2016.
(867)Halbach, U., email response, 11 November 2016.
(868)RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 2.
(869)ICG, Chechnya: The Inner Abroad, 30 June 2015, p. 21; RFE/RL, Chechen Leaders Slam Proposed Creation Of Shari'a Courts, 26 April 2012.
(870) Sykiainen uses this term in order to distinguish such institutions from the Sharia courts of the past. He notes, however, that these institutions are also sometimes referred to as Sharia courts in a conventional way.
(871)Sykiainen, Leonid R., Sharia Courts: Modern Practice And Prospectives In Russia, 2015, pp. 13-14.
(872)Historian who specializes in Chechnya and has conducted field research in Chechnya, email response, 2 November 2016.
(873) UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
(874) RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, pp. 1-2; see also CoE-PACE, Human rights in the North Caucasus: what follow-up to Resolution 1738 (2010)? [Doc. 14083], 8 June 2016, pp. 13-14;
HRW, Human Rights Violations in Russia’s North Caucasus, 28 January 2016.
rarely seek redress for violations of their rights, ‘and when they do, regional law‐enforcement agencies often do not react or openly obstruct. In Chechnya the state protection that victims do get sometimes involves officials who collude with suspected perpetrators’ (875). Women will usually have insufficient protection against so‐called honour killings or forced marriages and will lose any battle over custody of their children (876).
According to ICG, Kadyrov’s ‘efforts to enforce tradition and morality affect women more than men’, putting them at increased risk of ‘honour killings, underage marriages and violence’ (877). In Chechnya, many women ‘are deprived of their children after divorce – with reference to purported “tradition”
which allegedly prescribes children to be raised in their father’s family – and are often denied visiting rights’ (878).
RJI and CAN lists the following tools Chechen authorities use to prevent women from seeking legal remedies, for example when asking for custody of their children in case of divorce: bring fabricated charges against the mother or accuse her of conduct that makes her unfit to take care of her children;
threaten to bring charges against the woman’s male relatives; threaten her and her family with physical force; spread rumours and allegations about her being unfit for custody of her children; use the husband’s connections to the security apparatus to pressure the judges to rule against her, get her lawyer to drop her case, or the bailiff to not implement a ruling in her favour; tell her children her mother only wants to hurt them in order to pressure her to drop the proceedings (879).
In a case that ultimately reached the ECHR, a woman seeking custody of her children succeeded in obtaining custody from the Chechen Supreme Court. The relatives of her husband then hindered enforcement of the judgment and started a smear campaign against her, accusing her of an ‘amoral’
life‐style. They also sent security officers to threaten her and her lawyer. Ultimately, the Chechen Supreme Court reversed its ruling and granted custody to the husband, ordering the woman to pay child support (880).
The ICG said many families cannot resist pressure from powerful men in their areas who were interested in one of their daughters (881). In a widely publicised case, Kadyrov spoke out in support of an already married police chief who wanted to marry a 17‐year‐old girl against her will (882). The
(875) Sokirianskaia, E., Women in the North Caucasus Conflicts: An Under-reported Plight, 9 June 2016.
(876) RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 2.
(877) ICG, Chechnya: The Inner Abroad, 30 June 2015, p. 33.
(878) Sokirianskaia, E., Women in the North Caucasus Conflicts: An Under-reported Plight, 9 June 2016.
(879) RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 4.
(880) Magomadova v Russia, Appl. No. 58724/14, accorded priority treatment by the European Court of Human Rights on 27 August 2015, described in RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, pp. 5.
(881)ICG, Chechnya: The Inner Abroad, 30 June 2015, p. 33.
(882) CoE-PACE, Human rights in the North Caucasus: what follow-up to Resolution 1738 (2010)? [Doc. 14083], 8 June 2016, p. 13; HRW, Dispatches: Will Russia Protect A Child Bride?, 13 May 2015; RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 8.
wedding took place on 16 May 2016, with the presence of Kadyrov (883). While then Commissioner for Human Rights, Ella Pamfilova, protested against the marriage, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights explained that regional subjects had the right to set the minimum age for marriage lower than Russian law. He added that ‘[i]n the Caucasus, sexual maturity is reached at a younger age, let’s not be sanctimonious about it. There are places where women are wrinkled at 27, and where by our measures they look to be around 50. And generally the Constitution does not allow to interfere in the private lives of citizens’ (884).
RJI and CAN add that fabricated charges or even rumours of adultery or prostitution are dangerous for a woman in Chechnya as it exposes her to ostracism from her family or even honour killings (885).
According to the same source, honour killings are periodically reported in Chechnya, although it is very difficult to assess the true scale of the problem. The source indicates that there is no specific legislation to define and criminalise the practice, so very few cases are reported or end up in court (886).
ICG indicates that in Chechnya, ‘Russian law is just one of the three co‐existing legal systems that regulate’ women’s position in society, together with customary law [adat] and Islamic Sharia law. The source adds that ‘all these systems are open to arbitrary interpretations, which can lead to serious infringement of rights. (…) Even when Russian courts pass decisions in favour of women, the local authorities, especially in Chechnya, openly sabotage their implementation’ (887).
According to RFE/RL, in the first trimester of 2015 two men were formally charged with the murder of female relatives for ‘amoral behaviour’ (888). The Caucasian Knot reports that one of those men, Sultan Daurbekov, accused of killing his daughter, was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment, to be served in a high security colony (889).
(883) Moscow Times (The), Chechen Police Chief Marries Teen Bride Amid Mounting Scandal, 17 May; New York Times (The), Chechen Leader’s Advice on Women: Lock Them In, 20 May 2015.
(884) RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 8.
(885) RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 4.
(886) RJI and CAN, Submission from Russian Justice Initiative (RJI) and Chechnya Advocacy Network Concerning the Russian Federation's Compliance with the CEDAW Convention in the North Caucasus Region, October 2015, p. 4.
(887) ICG, Women in the North Caucasus Conflicts: An Under-reported Plight, 9 June 2016.
(888) RFE/RL, Man To Face Trial In 'Honor Killing' Case In Chechnya, 19 March.
(889) Caucasian Knot, Chechen resident sentenced to 7 years in colony for "honour killing", 27 April 2015.