Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion European Network on Statelessness Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 30th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Russian Federation Introduction 1. Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) Memorial,1 the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI),2 and the European Network on Statelessness (ENS)3 make this joint submission in relation to human rights and statelessness in the Russian Federation (RF) in general and, in particular, to the detention of stateless persons and migrants deemed to have violated migration rules. The Universal Periodic Review of the Russian Federation under the Second Cycle 2. Russia was subject to the UPR for a second time in 2013 during the Sixteenth Session of the Second Cycle. During this review, Russia supported/noted the recommendations by Argentina 140.21 to “Consider the possibility of ratifying … the Conventions on Statelessness” and by Austria 140.14 to “Ratify … the Conventions regarding stateless persons …”. Russia also supported the recommendation by Kazakhstan 140.132 to “Apply positive measures in order to ensure appropriate conditions for persons in detention, with involvement of public monitoring commissions”; and by Jordan 140.133. to “Take positive measures towards guaranteeing appropriate conditions for people in detention including involvement of the system of public observer commissions that monitor penitentiary institutions”.4 1 Anti-Discrimination Centre (ADC) Memorial is a Human Rights NGO defending the rights of vulnerable groups (such as representatives of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, migrants, stateless persons, LGBTI persons and others) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, through national and international advocacy, strategic litigation and education/information work. A number of strategic cases relevant to statelessness were won with the financial support and expertise of ADC Memorial; among them the ECHR case “Kim vs Russia” (2014) and the case of Noe Mskhiladze in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (2017). ADC Memorial has prepared a number of analytical Human Rights reports on the problem of statelessness and raised this issue in alternative reports to UN Treaty Bodies. ADC Memorial is a member of the European Network of Statelessness. For more information about the work of ADC Memorial, please visit its website: www.adcmemorial.org 2 ISI is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion through a combination of research, education, partnerships and advocacy. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Over the past two years, the Institute has made over 20 country specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23 rd to the 28th UPR Sessions. For more information on the Institute’s UPR advocacy, see http://www.statelessnessandhumanrights.org/upr-universal-periodic-review/resources-database. 3 The European Network on Statelessness (ENS) is a civil society alliance of NGOs, lawyers, academics, and other independent experts committed to addressing statelessness in Europe. Based in London, it currently has over 100 members in 40 European countries. ENS organises its work around three pillars – law and policy, communications and capacity-building. The Network provides expert advice and support to a range of stakeholders, including governments. For more information about ENS, please visit its website: www.statelessness.eu 4 Universal Periodic Review. Russian Federation. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/RUIndex.aspx. Matrix of Recommendations. 2013. 1