On January 27-29, 2003, the Open Society Justice Initiative convened a workshop in Moscow focused on combating discrimination in Russia. At the meeting, Russian human rights organizations and lawyers explored with experienced human rights advocates from other countries comparative strategies for challenging racial, ethnic and gender discrimination in Europe, South Africa and the United States, and discussed how best to address discriminatory practices in Russia.
The meeting resulted in three principal outputs:
The presentation and exploration by Russian human rights lawyers of the extent and nature of discrimination and the domestic legal instruments available to tackle it;
An overview by European and other human rights lawyers of comparative strategies to address discrimination, and consideration as to how they might be applied in Russia; and
The preliminary formulation of a number of projects to address discrimination in Russia.
In Russia, ethnic and racial minorities face physical mistreatment by the police and violence by private parties. Allegations of widespread discrimination against racial minorities in the criminal justice system and in other spheres of public life have yet to be conclusively rebutted.