Civil rights is a category of human rights that include individual personal freedom, privacy, personal security, a right to life, dignity, freedom from torture, freedom of movement and residence, and freedom of conscience. Such rights differ from the political, economic, social, and cultural rights guaranteed by the International Bill of Rights. The challenge of enforcing these rights has been acute throughout the world, but Russia in particular has experienced unique and significant difficulties. Until now, the theoretical literature dealing with the legal characteristics of civil rights, how to realize them, and how to protect people from their infringement, has been wanting. This timely and comprehensive volume rectifies this lapse, especially as civil rights enforcement relates to Russia. It draws on a wealth of materials, including reports and statistical data from the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, and several Russian offices of state. The contributors, comprised of researchers, judges, lawyers, and legal authorities, are all experts in human and civil rights and bring a fresh perspective to these issues. They analyze international law, Russian legislation, and decisions of the European Court and the Constitutional Court of Russia each from a humanistic stance. While the authors represent different age groups, occupations, and approaches, they are in agreement on the necessity of protecting civil rights; expanding and developing their guaranty both in Russia and all over the world. Civil Human Rights in Russia dispels many of the myths about Russia and its attitude toward civil rights, especially as regards to the stereotype that the Russian people do not know about such rights, nor care about human dignity. The authors of this volume make clear that Russia has been instrumental in the formation and recognition of universal human rights. The Russian contribution builds on those established by the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This volume is a fundamental contribution to the literature, one that will help the reader to understand the essence of civil human rights and how they may be implemented and enforced in the twenty-first century.

Chechnya, a 6,000-square-mile corner of the northern Caucasus, has struggled under Russian domination for centuries. The region declared its independence in 1991, leading to a brutal war, Russian withdrawal, and subsequent "governance" by bandits and warlords. A series of apartment building attacks in Moscow in 1999, allegedly orchestrated by a rebel faction, reignited the war, which continues to rage today. Russia has gone to great lengths to keep journalists from reporting on the conflict; consequently, few people outside the region understand its scale and the atrocities—described by eyewitnesses as comparable to those discovered in Bosnia—committed there. Anna Politkovskaya, a correspondent for the liberal Moscow newspaper Novaya gazeta, was the only journalist to have constant access to the region. Her international stature and reputation for honesty among the Chechens allowed her to continue to report to the world the brutal tactics of Russia's leaders used to quell the uprisings. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya is her second book on this bloody and prolonged war. More than a collection of articles and columns, A Small Corner of Hell offers a rare insider's view of life in Chechnya over the past years. Centered on stories of those caught-literally-in the crossfire of the conflict, her book recounts the horrors of living in the midst of the war, examines how the war has affected Russian society, and takes a hard look at how people on both sides are profiting from it, from the guards who accept bribes from Chechens out after curfew to the United Nations. Politkovskaya's unflinching honesty and her courage in speaking truth to power combine here to produce a powerful account of what is acknowledged as one of the most dangerous and least understood conflicts on the planet. Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in Moscow on October 7, 2006. "The murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya leaves a terrible silence in Russia and an information void about a dark realm that we need to know more about. No one else reported as she did on the Russian north Caucasus and the abuse of human rights there. Her reports made for difficult reading—and Politkovskaya only got where she did by being one of life's difficult people."—Thomas de Waal, Guardian

Recommendations -- Methodology -- I. Background -- II. The "Foreign Agents" law -- III. NGO inspections -- IV. Treason law -- V. The "Dima Yakovlev Law" -- VI. Restrictions on public assemblies -- VII. Internet content restrictions -- VIII. Other elements of the crackdown -- IX. Russia's international legal obligations -- Acknowledgements.

Law, Rights and Ideology in Russia: Landmarks in the destiny of a great power brings into sharp focus several key episodes in Russia’s vividly ideological engagement with law and rights. Drawing on 30 years of experience of consultancy and teaching in many regions of Russia and on library research in Russian-language texts, Bill Bowring provides unique insights into people, events and ideas. The book starts with the surprising role of the Scottish Enlightenment in the origins of law as an academic discipline in Russia in the eighteenth century. The Great Reforms of Tsar Aleksandr II, abolishing serfdom in 1861 and introducing jury trial in 1864, are then examined and debated as genuine reforms or the response to a revolutionary situation. A new interpretation of the life and work of the Soviet legal theorist Yevgeniy Pashukanis leads to an analysis of the conflicted attitude of the USSR to international law and human rights, especially the right of peoples to self-determination. The complex history of autonomy in Tsarist and Soviet Russia is considered, alongside the collapse of the USSR in 1991. An examination of Russia’s plunge into the European human rights system under Yeltsin is followed by the history of the death penalty in Russia. Finally, the secrets of the ideology of ‘sovereignty’ in the Putin era and their impact on law and rights are revealed. Throughout, the constant theme is the centuries long hegemonic struggle between Westernisers and Slavophiles, against the backdrop of the Messianism that proclaimed Russia to be the Third Rome, was revived in the mission of Soviet Russia to change the world and which has echoes in contemporary Eurasianism and the ideology of sovereignty.

In the context of growing human rights abuses, religious freedom conditions in Russia suffered serious setbacks. The Russian government's application of its extremism law violates the rights of members of certain Muslim groups and allegedly "non-traditional" religious communities, particularly Jehovah's Witnesses, through raids, detentions, and imprisonment. Various laws and practices increasingly grant preferential status to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Federation has a highly centralised political system, with power increasingly concentrated in the president, and a weak multiparty political system. The most significant human rights problems include the restriction of civil liberties; violations of electoral processes; and the administration of justice. This book provides an overview of Russian human rights and religious freedom reports.

The introduction of a market economy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe required an enormous legislative effort, in order to create the regulatory framework for a vast array of new economic activities. The resulting statutory materials in turn gave rise to numerous books and articles, by domestic lawyers from the countries concerned, as well as by foreign scholars. By comparison, the other part of the legal diptych - the establishment of the rule of law - has received less attention from academic commentators. The purpose of this volume is to correct the balance to some extent, especially by looking at various aspects of legal reform through the prism of human rights. The legal implementation of a respect for human rights turns out to be an even more comprehensive and pervasive enterprise than creating the legal framework for a market economy. A number of important areas of law are highlighted in this volume; the emphasis is, although not exclusively, on the Russian Federation.

Undertakes an analysis of the development of civil society in post-Soviet Russia. This book analyzes the Russian context and considers the roles of the media, business, organized crime, the church, the village, and the Putin administration in shaping the terrain of public life.