RUSSIA: COMPETING PRIORITIES, POOR FUNDING INHIBIT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 001836

DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/ECA, PRM/MCE AND EUR/RUS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF SOCI PHUM KWMN RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA: COMPETING PRIORITIES, POOR FUNDING INHIBIT
PROTECTION OF DISPLACED WOMEN

REFS: (A) MOSCOW 1647, (B) MOSCOW 1653, (C) STATE 49661


1. (SBU) Summary: Refugee and IDP women in Russia face even greater
hurdles to equality than their sisters in the native and local
population (refs A and B). Frequently they come from cultures in
which women are subordinate to men, and populations in exile appear
inclined to cling to outmoded gender roles as a vestige of
stability. International organizations are underfunded and short on
ideas to close the divide. This is the third in a series of cables
examining the lives and prospects of women in Russia; it also
responds to the PRM monitoring request in ref C. End Summary.

Reluctant Recruits to Russian Routines
--------------


2. (SBU) Natives of Afghanistan make up about 90 percent of refugees
in Russia. The community is difficult to help with assimilation
into Russian society, UNHCR Russia Country Representative Gesche
Karrenbrock observed June 11, because members have an expectation of
third-country resettlement born from years of near-certain rejection
by Russian asylum authorities. With UNHCR technical assistance and
training, the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) has
substantially improved its refugee status determination (RSD)
procedure this decade. In recognition of FMS's progress, UNHCR
ceased providing parallel RSD in 2008; however, it still faces the
problem of ensuring that successful asylum seekers in Russia achieve
social integration and find livelihoods. The first order of
business, Karrenbrock believes, is to convince the GOR to put its
own social funding into the asylum system. But aid recipients are
still likely to resist integration in Russia as long as they believe
resettlement to Western Europe or the U.S. is a realistic option.


3. (U) Another challenge for UNHCR protection officers is to
determine who the true Afghan community representatives are, as this
is an urban population that is geographically and generationally
(based on which Afghan regime they were forced to flee) divided.
Karrenbrock was not familiar with UNHCR's new Heightened Risk
Identification Tool (ref C). Traditional participatory assessments
have shown that a great majority of families want cash assistance,
an intervention that Karrenbrock rejects because it creates
dependency. UNHCR targets cash assistance with a focus on creating
livelihoods and the understanding of recipients that it is for a
limited time; eventually it hopes to eliminate cash assistance
completely.


4. (U) Much more sustainable, Karrenbrock asserted, are refugee
women's gatherings to practice traditional crafts, such as
embroidery, and discuss common challenges, such as domestic violence
and spousal unemployment. A UNHCR local partner,
Equilibre-Solidarity, provides space for such groups to meet but, to
save money, has eliminated staff to supervise the meetings.
Karrenbrock remains frustrated that, although the groups help the
women to escape the social isolation imposed by traditional Afghan
gender roles that confine women to the home, they do not actively
assist with integration into the larger society. Her staff has
scheduled the first meeting of a stakeholders working group on
women, children, and gender issues for August 13, 2009. (Note:
This initiative grew out of a shelter working group that developed
with Embassy Moscow support after Refcoord invited UNHCR and NGO
representatives to a DVC on homelessness May 14. End note.)

UNHCR Moscow Approach to SGBV
--------------


5. (SBU) Russia's FMS does not recognize sexual and gender-based
violence (SGBV) as a ground for refugee status. It does, however,
according to Karrenbrock, try to find another humanitarian basis on
which to afford temporary asylum for women who make credible SGBV
claims. As part of its government capacity building, UNHCR is
instructing FMS that women can be construed as a social group under
the 1951 Refugee Convention. Unfortunately, FMS interview
facilities are not appropriate for passing confidential information.
In Moscow, up to four individuals are seen at one time in a room
without partitions, creating potential embarrassment for women with
sensitive stories to tell; facilities in St. Petersburg are slightly
better. FMS has asked UNHCR to fund partitions, but Karrenbrock is
wary of the precedent of backstopping the GOR on something so basic.
Instead, she proposes that UNHCR support FMS in the next round of
intra-GOR funding negotiations.


6. (U) At UNHCR Moscow's Refugee Reception Center, a local-hire
Social Protection Coordinator (SPC) manages the organization's
psycho-social response to SGBV. UNHCR implementing partners and
staff inform the SPC about suspected cases, and the SPC holds
reception hours for women at risk. Women at risk also receive the
SPC's mobile telephone number, which effectively serves as an SGBV
hotline, making counseling available day and night. The SPC advises
on the development of a personal security plan and measures to take

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in case of violence; she also records traces of physical violence.
SGBV cases are recorded on purpose-made forms that are collected by
UNHCR's Protection Unit for statistical reporting purposes. The SPC
also ensures that victims receive medical, psychosocial, and legal
help - including, where appropriate, cash assistance and referral
for resettlement. In emergencies, she identifies possibilities for
temporary accommodation for victims of violence who cannot safely
remain in their homes.


7. (SBU) According to an internal UNHCR Moscow document obtained by
Refcoord, the SGBV response mechanism generally runs smoothly;
however, the same constraints apply here as with other refugee
protection in Russia. Many women do not have any identification
documents, so they are reluctant to make reports to the police;
Russian law enforcement are insufficiently trained in SGBV response;
and refugee women lack the means to live separately from their
abusers. Offenders are neither prosecuted nor punished, and Moscow
has no shelters for foreign women-SGBV victims.


8. (SBU) UNHCR Moscow does have an established complaints and
investigations procedure related to exploitation and abuse, but
Karrenbrock acknowledges that the mechanism is not well publicized.
The Reception Center furnishes a complaint box, but it has not been
clear to clients whether complaints are confidential - although in
fact no one below the Center's director, a member of international
staff, is able to access its contents. Karrenbrock says there have
been no complaints of staff harassment of Center clients but one
complaint of corruption that bore investigation. The allegation was
never proven and in fact may have been a case of attempted FSB
(Russian security service) entrapment of an honest employee. The
case did prompt a revision of the Center's standard operating
procedures: reception duties are now rotated so that no employee
can alone determine what benefits a client receives.

Some Statistics
--------------


9. (U) UNHCR reports that as of 2007 it had a total of 38 (36 women
and two men) SGBV cases registered. Of those, 32 cases remained
active throughout the year and received support. A total of six new
cases were brought to the agency's attention during the year. In
2008 there were a total of 43 cases (42 women, one man),of which 33
received support. These included six cases of SGBV in the country
of origin and 27 cases of SGBV in the country of asylum. In St.
Petersburg, UNHCR registered four SGBV cases relating to minors. A
total of 14 new SGBV cases were brought to UNHCR's attention.


10. (U) In 2007-8, UNHCR resettled in third countries a total of
eight families (seven from Afghanistan and one from Iraq) as SGBV
victims; two families from Afghanistan were repatriated for the same
reason. In 2009 UNHCR has registered four new cases of violence
against three women and one man in Moscow; and 15 women registered
earlier have consulted on new cases of domestic violence or
requested psychological, medical, or cash assistance.

Prisoners of the Mountains
--------------


11. (U) In addition to a lack of adequate shelter, which is their
main problem, women IDPs in the North Caucasus face similar problems
to women in the host community, according to UNHCR Vladikavkaz
Senior Protection Officer Jun Shirato. This has made it difficult
to develop particular programs for them, Shirato asserted - UNHCR
cannot alter an entire society's culture, even as it recognizes that
traditional practices such as bride abductions may further
traumatize and disadvantage IDP women.


12. (SBU) Because of the prevalence of "adat," the pre-Islamic
informal customary law, in the North Caucasus, most marriages,
divorces, custody, property disputes, and other family and civil law
matters that affect the lives of women are not administered by
government agencies or the courts in accordance with Russian Law.
In an expert affidavit solicited by Refcoord in connection with a
May 2009 in-country admissions referral, the affiant testified, "The
Russian government has largely abandoned its citizens in Chechnya,
especially vulnerable ones like women, to the arbitrariness of the
[President Ramzan] Kadyrov government and abuses committed under
adat. There has been no pro-active effort to make the protections
of Russian law available to residents of Chechnya. Even when
Chechen women defy adat and seek the protection of Russian law and
assistance of the authorities, for example in custody cases (where
adat holds that children 'belong' to the father's family and may be
taken away permanently from their mothers),the authorities and
courts are often unwilling to do their job and even counsel women to
submit to local traditions instead."


13. (U) UNHCR uses its limited resources to focus on assisting IDP
women with problems related specifically to their displacement. In

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collective accommodations it is the women who are the most active in
bringing their concerns to UNHCR protection staff, Country Director
Karrenbrock told us. Their confidence in announcing their needs
developed in 2000, when most men were off fighting - and frequently
dying, leaving the women to head their households alone. After long
experience of displacement, women in the North Caucasus have become
articulate, if not organized, in their expressions of frustration
with poor socio-economic conditions.


14. (U) Shirato noted that 40 percent of IDP families in the North
Caucasus are headed by women. UNHCR does not register IDPs in the
North Caucasus, though, so it obtains its data from studies
undertaken by domestic and international NGO implementing partners.
As UNHCR's North Caucasus budget does not permit it to offer
assistance to all IDPs there, national authorities would look
askance at any registration effort. Also, as the IDPs are scattered
in both urban and rural settings across a wide region, some in
collective centers and some in the private sector, UNHCR has not
established an IDP committee, making it difficult to evaluate
whether IDP women enjoy equal leadership opportunities in their
communities. UNHCR provides assistance to the most vulnerable
families, getting involved in about 100 cases a year based on
information provided by monitors who visit IDP homes. Any
assistance to families includes women's sanitary supplies, Shirato
affirmed.

UNHCR Vladikavkaz Approach to SGBV
--------------


15. (U) In the fall of 2007 UNHCR Vladikavkaz developed and approved
an SOP for responding to SGBV. The document's focus is on legal
assistance, which the office believes is its strong suit. The
office defines its primary role as helping people who want to take
legal action against perpetrators. UNHCR leaves it to its
implementing partners to offer, or make referrals for, medical and
psycho-social care. No specific NGOs are mentioned in the SOP,
however, due to high turnover among voluntary organizations active
in the region.

Cultural and Security Impediments
--------------


16. (SBU) Country Director Karrenbrock elaborated on the context in
which UNHCR is attempting to help North Caucasus IDP women. People
there do not have faith in government structures, and are afraid
that there could even be retaliation for reporting certain crimes.
But UNHCR is loath to criticize sexist officials (note: such as
Chechnya's Human Rights Ombudsman, who last winter suggested that
several female murder victims had brought their fates on themselves
by wearing provocative clothing; end note) publicly for fear of
alienating individuals who are essential to resolving other IDP
issues.


17. (U) Also, due to the tense security environment, UN
international staff can only travel to IDP areas in large armed
convoys that in effect deter approaches by individuals seeking help
with sensitive issues. UNHCR therefore works through domestic
partners such as NIZAM and Vesta, whose trained social workers can
move discreetly among their vulnerable countrywomen. Even so, it
takes either a very courageous woman to go on to pursue legal
remedies for her victimization or else creation of so much publicity
around a case that retaliation becomes too risky for allies of the
perpetrator to contemplate, Karrenbrock observed.


18. (U) International Medical Corps (IMC) Country Director Simon
Rasin corroborated Karrenbrock's observations in a conversation with
Refcoord June 6. The North Caucasus is a difficult environment in
which to get women even to talk about sexual violence, Rasin stated,
because of a widespread attitude that SGBV should not be discussed
outside the home but dealt with inside the affected clan or family.
Teachers at schools where IMC conducts training often say that SGBV
is a major problem elsewhere but not in their local communities;
Rasin posits that this is because the teachers do not wish to
discuss the problem with outsiders. When IMC makes an income
generation grant to an SGBV victim, it is at pains to keep secret
from often equally economically vulnerable community members the
reason for the individual's selection. Publicizing the truth could
result in the victim being ostracized by her family and neighbors,
Rasin reported, though younger, better educated Chechens, especially
those who have been abroad, tend to have more accepting attitudes.
IMC has worked closely with UNHCR protection staff, including
Shirato and a Chechen attorney who is a former policeman, on
providing SGBV training to Chechen police officers. The UNHCR
speakers lecture on international and domestic legal standards as
they apply to SGBV cases the officers may see in their work.


19. (U) Presumably because of its narrow legal focus, UNHCR
Vladikavkaz only directly dealt with two cases of SGBV in 2008, both

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involving rapes of young children - one by a stranger, and one by a
neighbor. UNHCR counseled the families. In the stranger rape case,
the family proceeded with a criminal prosecution, but in the other
case the victim's family quietly departed the community where the
crime had taken place.


20. (SBU) Caucasians do not want to come to UNHCR about SGBV issues,
Shirato concluded resignedly, and UNHCR cannot compel them, though
it does disseminate information about its legal services. Her
office has not been able to figure out a way to be more effective in
this sphere, Shirato lamented. Karrenbrock also conceded that, for
all the good work of its national partners, UNHCR itself needs to do
more creative thinking about how it can help.

UNICEF Plays Catch-Up
--------------


21. (U) UNICEF appears even further behind than its sister agency in
thinking strategically about insuring that its work benefits the
sexes in proportion to their needs. Country Director Bernard
Bainvel told Refcoord June 16 that he wants to conduct a gender
audit on some parts of UNICEF's program "at the end of the year."
Bainvel, who arrived in Russia in September 2008, said he wants to
introduce more of a gender dimension in UNICEF interventions. His
agency needs to look at whether it is able to challenge stereotypes
of men and women through its psycho-social program as well as
whether women are comfortable talking about their unmet needs, he
acknowledged. Fixed gender roles can harm boys as well as girls,
Bainvel reflected further. For example, youth services are mostly
used by young women; young Caucasian men do not show up because of
their society's belief that they should not need help.


22. (U) Currently, close to 50 percent of UNICEF Russia's program is
in the North Caucasus, where, Bainvel noted, there is a pronounced
gender differentiation in parenting. Bainvel also remarked that the
choice of when and with whom to get married, or of not to marry at
all, is restricted for women in the North Caucasus, whether or not
they are IDPs. He recalled the case of a woman on UNICEF's own
North Caucasus staff whose father, because she was still single,
would not allow her to move to Moscow for a job. On the positive
side, Bainvel said UNICEF could successfully draw on the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, which Russia has ratified, in order to
escape the trap of perceived cultural relativism in its advice to
Caucasian beneficiaries.


23. (U) Bainvel said he had no figures on how many UNICEF
beneficiaries are IDPs and no way of collecting them. He also had
no statistics on what percentages of UNICEF beneficiaries are boys
and girls. The agency tries to keep a 50/50 balance, he reported,
but does nothing systematic to ensure such equality. He explained
that gender awareness is not a matter of counting the number of
girls but of looking at the life cycle - family, streets, school,
political participation - and identifying where there is bias.


24. (U) UNICEF in Russia does not have a mechanism for beneficiaries
to complain about sexual harassment. Perhaps none is necessary in
Moscow, Bainvel rationalized, as UNICEF supplies little direct
assistance in the capital. Arguably the same is true in the North
Caucasus, where the situation is not classified as an emergency, he
added. Bainvel does believe that a complaints mechanism also
protects the agency that promulgates it, however; he has therefore
tabled with the UN Country Team the issue of introducing one.

Comment
--------------


25. (SBU) UN staff interviewed for this report came across as well
disposed toward considering special gender-based protection needs;
however, they had not undertaken systematic or original efforts to
implement UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women (ref
C). Distractions created by Russia's peculiarly challenging
operating environment - relatively small budgets; urban displaced
populations; a host government ambivalent about meeting its
responsibilities under international law - appear to be the main
culprits in this lag. We will continue to raise the issue of
women's special vulnerability with international organization
duty-bearers and encourage official visitors to do the same.

BEYRLE