Suchergebnisse

This report analyses the dramatic turn in the policy of the Russian Federation towards its minorities in 2015. In March 2014, the Kremlin created a new state agency, the Federal Agency for Affairs of Nationalities. This new Agency is headed by an FSB Colonel with combat experience in the North Caucasus, and no previous experience of work with minorities. There are three main manifestations of the new turn. First, there is an emphasis on protection of national security as the central aim of Russian nationalities policy, together with the strengthening of the state sovereignty and integrity of Russia. Second, there is the promotion of the Russian language, which is now seen to be in some ways under threat. And third, documents and speeches are replete with references to the 'Rossiiskaya natsiya' ['Russian nation'], not to be confused with the 'Russkiy narod' ['Russian people']. This turn has been instituted against the background of a systematic 'conservative turn' by the Kremlin, with increasing obstacles placed in the way of all civil society organizations through the 2012 Foreign Agents Law, and the May 2015 Law on Undesirable Organizations. The 'securitization' of minorities policy in Russia and the appointment of FSB Colonel Barinov to lead the new direction of minorities policy in Russia will, as he has frankly stated, signify that preservation and promotion of cultural and in particular linguistic rights will be seen as threats to Russia's continued existence.

This article highlights a number of interesting and significant cases concerning minority rights at the Strasbourg Court during the recent period of just over two years. The issues include the continuing deadlock in enforcing the Court's controversial antidiscrimination judgment in Sejdic and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina; a new emphasis on and attention to social and economic rights as protected by the Revised Social Charter in the context of forced evictions; the Court's expanding jurisprudence on the positive duties of the state; the fascinating Slovenian case on the fate of the "erased;" and a continuing focus on discrimination against Chechens as part of the Court's recent return to a focus on the long-neglected Article 14 of the Convention. The article concludes by summarising a new scholarly interpretation of minority rights through the concept of vulnerability.

Im November 2012 trat ein neues NGO-Gesetz in Kraft, das Nichtregierungsorganisationen in Russland, die ausländische Fördermittel erhalten und eine »politische Tätigkeit« betreiben, dazu verpflichtet, sich als »ausländische Agenten« registrieren zu lassen. Dieser Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung der NGO-Gesetzgebung in Russland in den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten nach und unternimmt eine Einschätzung, welche Auswirkungen das neue Gesetz voraussichtlich haben wird. Die These lautet, dass die meisten NGOs gegenwärtig noch versuchen, eine Klarstellung über die genaue Bedeutung der vagen Begriffe im Gesetz zu erhalten, während es klar zu sein scheint, dass das Gesetz gegen jene gerichtet ist, die als politische Bedrohung für das Putin-Regime wahrgenommen werden.