Legal reform has moved in two seemingly opposite directions: a broadening of legal rights
accompanied by a decrease in their day-to-day observance.
To judge rights observance by legislation passed during the period of
democratization in Russian society, the results are quite impressive. For all its internal
contradictions, legislative reforms in the areas of justice and court proceedings have
been deep and thorough, and have fundamentally changed the position of the Russian citizen
for the better.
Changes made in penitentiary legislation has brought it significantly
closer to international standards, and, by some estimates, even surpassed them. The report
also notes positive contributions to the legislative reform made by the leadership of the
Internal Ministry penitentiary administration (GUIN MVD)
and departmental research institutions. They actively supported not only the idea of
humanization of the conditions in penitentiary institutions, but, within their
capabilities, have gone farther than legislators. This is quite rare for a state agency,
more commonly known for its conservative stance and resistance to innovations.
Nevertheless, as the report clearly shows, rights observance has
clearly deteriorated in penitentiaries. Massive, outrageous and systemic human rights
violations are confirmed by all oversight bodies, from governmental sources, to CE and UN
experts, to the President's Commission on Human Rights, to Russian NGO's. The situation in
Russian prison institutions may fairly and soberly be termed catastrophic.
The head of the GUIN MVD, Yu. I.
Kalinin, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "The conditions in
our institutions qualify as torture under international standards. These standards include
lack of sleep, air and living space."
Former GULAG inmates describe
conditions in SIZOs as worse than those of Stalinist
times.
The conditions in truth exceed a simple violation of human rights, and
constitute a crime against humanity committed by the Russian government against hundreds
of thousands of its own citizens who have not been convicted of any crime. "The
situation in the criminal justice system has failed to stabilize. It gets worse every
year," the report states.
It continues thus: "The human rights problem in colonies, prisons
and isolations wards weighs heavily on Russia's moral authority in the rest of the world.
It has already aroused the concern of the UN, the Council of Europe, the European
parliament and others.
"Yet the problem also lies in the fact that [Russian] ideas of
reform and democratization have been discredited. Sociological research shows clearly that
the people share the opinion that they are defenseless against the government, and that
rights enumerated in the Constitution are mere declarations."
This paradox of legal reform is most often explained away with
seemingly objective factors: crime growth and the lack of financial means.
While these factors certainly play a role, the authors of this report consider their
importance to be exaggerated. The root of the failure lies in aspects immanent to the
reforms themselves. These features are outlined below.
