RUSSIAN LEGAL BARRIERS AND IO FUNDING GAPS LIMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000064

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/ECA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2020
TAGS: PREF UNHCR RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIAN LEGAL BARRIERS AND IO FUNDING GAPS LIMIT
PROTECTION OF DISPLACED CHILDREN

REF: A. (A) 09 STATE 49661

B. (B) 09 MOSCOW 1836

Classified By: ACTING DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION SUSAN ELLIOTT, REASONS 1.
4(B AND D).


1. (SBU) Summary: Negotiating complex asylum procedures,
accessing state-funded education, and obtaining psychosocial
support are foremost among the challenges for refugees and
internally displaced (IDP) children in Russia. International
organizations face funding shortages in their attempts to
improve the lives of these children, and most choose to
target children in general rather than focusing on or
privileging children who are forced migrants. This cable
responds to a PRM monitoring request (ref A) and complements
a cable assessing the protection of displaced women in Russia
(ref B). End summary.

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UNHCR's Haphazard Approach
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2. (C) UNHCR Moscow lacks a standard operating procedure for
appointing guardians to unaccompanied minors and separated
children during their asylum application process. It
appoints guardians to such children on a case-by-case basis.
Irina Sherbakova, Assistant Protection Officer at UNHCR
Moscow, told us October 23 that there is a "legislative gap"
for these children. There are insufficient Russian legal
provisions for appointing legal guardians to unaccompanied
minors and separated children, so this category of children
cannot effectively access the country's asylum procedure.
Sherbakova observes that when UNHCR pushes the authorities to
follow the legal procedures in place, it may not be in the
best interest of the child. For example, an Afghan child
staying with an Afghan family that is not related to the
child should, under the law, be sent to a Russian shelter,
but then the child would be separated from his or her
familiar culture. UNHCR, Sherbakova conceded, is as yet
undecided about how to move forward on this issue in the
context of the relatively young and underdeveloped Russian
asylum system.


3. (SBU) A Russian draft law specifies what the responsible
government authorities should do for unaccompanied minors and
includes provisions regarding the appointment of guardians.
Sherbakova told us December 2 that in October UNHCR provided
its comments to the existing draft and is looking forward to
receiving an updated draft that takes its points into account.


4. (U) In the first three quarters of 2009 UNHCR handled four
cases of unaccompanied minors in the Moscow region, and one
Afghan child was repatriated according to his wishes.
UNHCR's Social Protection Coordinator oversees these cases.
UNHCR uses the Best Interest Determination (BID) procedure to
decide how to accommodate the minor. During and after an
interview with the child, a UNHCR representative fills out a
standard form that details the child's history and the
representative's recommendation of a durable solution for the
child. A UNHCR supervisor reviews the recommendation, and
then a UNHCR representative meets with the child and his or
her extended family to discuss the child's future and review
the final decision.


5. (SBU) Sherbakova was not familiar with the Heightened Risk
Identification Tool. She reported that UNHCR is often able
to identify people at risk from e-mails from people who are
referring friends. In August 2009 UNHCR organized a working
group on women, children, and gender as part of its
implementation of Age, Gender, and Diversity Mainstreaming,
but the group has only met once. Its members include
representatives from the Russian Federal Migration Service,
local NGOs, the Moscow City Government, UNICEF, and UNHCR.
Sherbakova said this was a good network for a range of
professionals involved in refugee and displaced children's
issues, but she was unsure of when it would meet again.


6. (SBU) A positive development for refugee and
asylum-seeking children in Moscow is their improved access to
education. Although there is no federal legal protection of
these children's education rights, a February 2002 decree
signed jointly by the Moscow City Mayor and the Moscow
Regional Governor, as well as instructions from the Moscow
Department of Education, advise all city schools to accept
children without requiring them to submit residence
registration documents. UNHCR reports that as of June 2009
there were 65 refugee and asylum-seeking children enrolled in
Russian public schools. It is easier for UNHCR to work with
children in Moscow because of its established office and

resources in the capital, but there are also more refugees in
Moscow than in the regions. Sherbakova did not have ideas
for how UNHCR could spread the positive development in the
Moscow education system to other Russian regions, and she
noted that the ease of dealing with the issue depends on each
region's governor.

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Broader Priorities Overwhelm ICRC's Focus on Children
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7. (SBU) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
in the Russian Federation does not target refugees
specifically, but rather "vulnerable" people in general. A
main ICRC priority in the North Caucasus is the psychosocial
support of families of missing persons. ICRC has one
psychosocial support delegate, whose expertise is in work for
adults. According to Deputy Head of Delegation Jerome Sorg,
ICRC would need additional resources to tailor the program
toward psychosocial support of children who have lost parents
in this devastating way. Nevertheless, ICRC supports
playrooms in Chechnya and Ingushetiya that are reserved for
children of IDPs and staffed with local social workers.


8. (U) As elsewhere, an ICRC priority in Russia is the
promotion of international humanitarian law (IHL). Sorg told
us October 22 that ICRC cooperates successfully with the
Russian Ministry of Education to implement a program teaching
humanitarian principles to schoolchildren. ICRC develops the
curriculum, and the Ministry trains the teachers about how to
convey humanitarian principles to children aged 9 to 14. The
IHL education is concentrated in regions where the promotion
of humanitarian principles is more critical, including the
North Caucasus, Sorg noted. ICRC will transfer the entire
program to the Russian Ministry of Education in mid-2010.

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UNICEF Assists Vulnerable Children in Chechnya
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9. (U) Similarly to ICRC, UNICEF does not have any programs
specifically targeting IDP and migrant children in Russia,
but UNICEF's work in the North Caucasus supports
conflict-affected children. Aida Ailarova, the project
officer who oversees UNICEF's PRM-funded psychosocial
services in Chechnya, told us November 2 that UNICEF
conducted an awareness-raising campaign that targeted
different sectors of the population: the government, school
principals and teachers, parents, and children. According to
Ailarova, the campaign effectively taught people to recognize
and respond to psychosocial problems.


10. (SBU) UNICEF child protection consultant Gabrielle
Akimova enlarged on Ailarova's assertion, contending that
this program is critical to helping children restart their
lives. First, the program offers psychosocial support in
schools, so it is convenient for young people. Second, youth
are involved in a peer training program, so children are not
only rehabilitating themselves but also helping others.
Third, over 50 percent of the program has been successfully
handed over to the government, so its activities are becoming
sustainable. Finally, psychosocial support for young people
addresses the problem of radicalization of disaffected youth,
thereby, she posited, preventing future conflict leading to
new displacements.


11. (U) UNICEF has opened a total of 31 children's
psychosocial centers in Chechnya and plans to open 19
additional centers before the end of 2009. The program's 60
local children's psychologists have received training in
school counseling and trauma counseling. In late 2009 UNICEF
commenced hotline services (emergency telephone counseling)
in Ingushetiya and Dagestan. The organization hopes to
expand its psychosocial recovery centers into those republics
as well. Akimova believes the Chechnya program works well in
the Caucasian cultural context, and it can be used as a model
for ameliorating post-traumatic stress disorders in
neighboring republics.

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Positive Impact of IMC's Work in the North Caucasus
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12. (U) The International Medical Corps (IMC),a PRM NGO
partner, also implements programs in the North Caucasus that
have a broader target population than just IDP and refugee
children. IMC works with children in the schools to prevent
and respond to gender-based violence (GBV). IMC also works
with GBV survivors through public schools' staff


psychologists. IMC helps train the psychologists to handle
routine cases, while IMC counselors step in to handle the
most difficult cases.


13. (U) According to IMC's reporting, during the
organization's 2008 GBV program it provided psychosocial
counseling to 88 boys and 150 girls, ranging from preschool
age to 18 years. Based on these consultations, IMC
registered cases of GBV for 33 boys and 34 girls.


14. (U) Both IMC and UNICEF have designed children's programs
that promote values to which the children may otherwise have
limited exposure. UNICEF conducts "peace and tolerance"
trainings (sponsored by USAID),while IMC teaches respect for
both sexes by asking the children to perform role plays based
on Chechen culture and legends. Program implementers aver
that this work is valuable for long-term stability because it
teaches principles of respect to the region's next generation.


15. (SBU) IMC's North Caucasus management hopes to improve
future programs by using findings from a survey-based
assessment of its community-based GBV prevention initiative
in the region. The initial IMC program raised awareness of
GBV, but IMC plans to shift its focus toward projects that
give people practical tools to respond to GBV. One
PRM-funded project is a website that IMC is developing to
connect GBV survivors in the North Caucasus to activists in
other Russian regions. Simon Rasin, IMC Russia Country
Representative, told us October 23 that the network will aim
to allow GBV survivors to overcome feelings of isolation and
learn coping strategies from people living across the country.


16. (SBU) IMC has also started to work with local police
officers, who are often the first responders to GBV.
According to the IMC survey, police officers had the biggest
change in attitude after IMC's GBV prevention initiative.
Now, IMC plans to give the police officers tools to act. IMC
is teaching the police officers about the damage GBV inflicts
on a community. IMC's Rasin emphasized to us the need to
deliver IMC's message in the appropriate religious and
cultural context: "We cannot do social engineering." IMC
thus finds it necessary to frame women's and girls'
liberation as gender equity rather than as gender equality.
Another aspect of IMC's work with first responders is
training the officers about legal issues associated with GBV.
In collaboration with UNHCR, IMC teaches the police how to
apply the existing Russian criminal code to GBV-related cases.


17. (SBU) Funding limitations prevent IMC from building
"centers of excellence," Rasin's preferred long-term solution
to the region's dearth of medical professionals with
specialized training in GBV issues. Rasin observed that at
present there are few incentives for trained medical workers
to stay in Chechnya, where the health care system is weak and
access to proper equipment limited. Similar to universities,
"centers of excellence" would be permanent facilities that
would serve as a hub of knowledge, facilitating the growth of
local capacity even after IMC leaves the region.

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Comment
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18. (C) UNHCR needs to establish a standard method to handle
unaccompanied minors. This category of children is
especially vulnerable due to Russian legislative gaps on top
of the distress associated with separation from parents. Up
to now UNHCR's case-by-case handling of children has worked
effectively, but in the event of a crisis, such as new or
exacerbated conflagration in Afghanistan or Iran, that
results in a heavier influx of cases of unaccompanied minors,
UNHCR is unprepared to handle the children efficiently and
effectively.


19. (SBU) With regard to the IMC and UNICEF North Caucasus
programs, although they both provide psychosocial support,
the organizations have avoided duplication if only because
the problems to be addressed are so massive. As long as the
organizations remain in communication, they work as force
multipliers to ameliorate the pain of the region's
long-suffering children.
Rubin