Sind Frauenrechte Menschenrechte? Genderdiskriminierungsfälle in Russland und der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte

Unsere Studie versucht der Frage nachzugehen, warum es im Gerichtssystem Russlands und beim Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (EGMR) praktisch keine Verfahren wegen Genderdiskriminierung gibt. Die These lautet, dass die Erklärung hierfür in der weit verbreiteten Wahrnehmung zu suchen ist, dass genderbasierte Diskriminierung ein im Vergleich mit anderen Rechtsverletzungen weniger grundsätzliches Menschenrechtsproblem darstellt. Unsere Feldforschung (die auch Interviews mit russischen Menschenrechtsaktivisten, feministischen Aktivisten und Rechtsanwälten einschloss, die Menschenrechtsverletzungen vor russische und internationale Gerichte bringen) hat ergeben, dass diese Wahrnehmung von Menschenrechten, die sowohl bei russischen Menschenrechtlern selbst als auch in der Bevölkerung anzutreffen ist, ein beträchtliches Hindernis bei der Bewusstseinsbildung über Diskriminierung darstellt. Das führt dazu, dass nur wenige Frauen vor Gericht ziehen und es an Anwälten mangelt, die dazu ausgebildet wären, bei Diskriminierungsfällen vor inländischen oder internationalen Gerichten das Mandat zu übernehmen

Russia in a changing climate

Climate change will shape the future of Russia, and vice versa, regardless of who rules in the Kremlin. The world\u27s largest country is warming faster than Earth as a whole, occupies more than half the Arctic Ocean coastline, and is waging a carbon-intensive war while increasingly isolated from the international community and its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Officially, the Russian government argues that, as a major exporter of hydrocarbons, Russia benefits from maintaining global reliance on fossil fuels and from climate change itself, because warming may increase the extent and quality of its arable land, open a new year-round Arctic sea route, and make its harsh climate more livable. Drawing on the collective expertise of a large group of Russia-focused social scientists and a comprehensive literature review, we challenge this narrative. We find that Russia suffers from a variety of impacts due to climate change and is poorly prepared to adapt to these impacts. The literature review reveals that the fates of Russia\u27s hydrocarbon-dependent economy, centralized political system, and climate-impacted population are intertwined and that research is needed on this evolving interrelationship, as global temperatures rise and the international economy decarbonizes in response. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance \u3e National Climate Change Policy Trans-disciplinary Perspectives \u3e National Reviews Trans-disciplinary Perspectives \u3e Regional Reviews. © 2023 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

Ground-Breaking Analysis of Russian Human Rights Activism through the European Court of Human Rights

Kirjallisuusarvostel

Foreign Assistance, International Norms, and NGO Development: Lessons from the Russian Campaign

Why have Western donors efforts to encourage development of Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) varied dramatically in two different NGO sectors, despite similar levels of assistance? I forward a norms-based explanation for varying success in bolstering the Russian women s and soldiers rights movements. Where foreign assistance is employed to promote norms that are universally embraced, it is highly likely to lead to a successful NGO movement. In contrast, when foreign assistance pursues norms that are specific to other societal contexts, it will fail to develop an NGO movement, regardless of the amount of funding foreign donors devote. NGOs and foreign donors have succeeded by articulating a universal norm against physical harm in the cases of soldiers rights and domestic violence, but have failed by voicing specifically Western norms of gender equality and feminism in the case of women s rights.I wish to thank Kathleen Collins, Elisabeth Friedman, Kathryn Hochstetler, David Holloway, Stephen Krasner, Gail Lapidus, Michael McFaul, and especially Richard Price, Lisa Martin, and two anonymous reviewers for their close readings and comments on versions of this article. Thanks also to Kimberly Swanzey for excellent research assistance and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for financial support of the research.

Private Forest Governance, Public Policy Impacts: The Forest Stewardship Council in Russia and Brazil

Under what conditions do private forest governance standards influence state policy and behavior to become more oriented toward sustainability? We argue that governance schemes targeting firms may indirectly shape state behavior, even when designed to bypass state regulation. Through an examination of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Russia and Brazil, we find that the FSC has influenced domestic rhetoric, laws, and enforcement practices. FSC has had a more disruptive and consequential impact on Russia’s domestic forest governance; in Brazil, earlier transnational environmental campaigns had already begun to shift domestic institutions toward sustainability. Based on interview data and textual analysis of FSC and government documents, we identify the mechanisms of indirect FSC influence on states—professionalization, civil society mobilization, firm lobbying, and international market pressure, and argue that they are likely to be activated under conditions of poor and decentralized governance, overlapping and competing regulations and high foreign market demand for exports.Arts, Faculty ofNon UBCPolitical Science, Department ofReviewedFacult

The Comparative Politics of Climate Change

The authors use a comparative politics framework, examining electoral interests, policy-maker's own normative commitments, and domestic political institutions as factors influencing Annex 1 countries' decisions on Kyoto Protocol ratification and adoption of national policies to mitigate climate change. Economic costs and electoral interests matter a great deal, even when policy-makers are morally motivated to take action on climate change. Leaders' normative commitments may carry the day under centralized institutional conditions, but these commitments can be reversed when leaders change. Electoral systems, federalism, and executive-legislative institutional configurations all influence ratification decisions and subsequent policy adoption. Although institutional configurations may facilitate or hinder government action, high levels of voter concern can trump institutional obstacles. Governments' decisions to ratify, and the reduction targets they face upon ratification, do not necessarily determine their approach to carbon emissions abatement policies: for example, ratifying countries that accept demanding targets may fail to take significant action. (c) 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Unpacking ‘Traditional Values’ in Russia’s Conservative Turn: Gender, Sexuality and the Soviet Legacy

We argue for analytically separating women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and differentiating the degrees of sexism and LGBTQ-phobia in Russia to better understand its conservative turn in the 2010s. Comparing Putin’s speeches to domestic audiences (1999–2020) with public opinion, we identify a somewhat conservative trend regarding women’s rights and a far more conservative one on LGBTQ+ rights. While Russia made a sharper conservative turn in summer 2021, we find that until 2020, state discourse and public opinion on these topics mostly echoed Soviet approaches, suggesting that the conservative ‘turn’ amounted more to a ‘return’ than to a novel development. © 2023 University of Glasgow

Russia and the Kyoto Protocol: Seeking an Alignment of Interests and Image

On November 5, 2004, the Russian Federation ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, effectively saving the treaty. Battling domestic interests, in which a majority of pro-Kyoto voices were countered by a small but powerful minority of Kyoto opponents, had little influence on the decision due to the centralized institutional environment in Russia which allows the President great autonomy in foreign policy. President Putin ratified the treaty because Russia would likely gain leverage in other international negotiations and contribute to an image of itself as a good member of the club of advanced industrialized states. He delayed ratification to clarify evidence about gains versus losses from Kyoto provisions and to secure concessions from other Kyoto ratifiers in other international negotiations. Existing implementation efforts are slow but indicate that Russia's strategy will emphasize maximizing profits through treaty mechanisms over maximizing emissions reductions. (c) 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.