The UN Committee recommended that Russia abandon the list of extremist materials and make other changes to laws and practices

On August 25, 2017, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) adopted Recommendations on the RF report.

According to the document, the Committee recommends that Russia finally adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and cite current regulations that mention discrimination, incl. Art. 136 of the Criminal Code, in accordance with the Convention (clauses 9, 10).

The Committee notes that the definition of extremist activity and procedure ban materials are still very vague (p.11). The Committee recommended that the Russian Federation stop maintaining the Federal List of Extremist Materials. And this is the first recommendation of its kind from an international organization.

The Committee expressed concern about laws on "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations".

The Committee requests clarification of the definition of extremist activities and articles 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code in accordance with article 4 of the Convention (paragraph 12). And clarify laws on "foreign agents" and "undesirable organizations" to they did not interfere with the legitimate activities of NGOs.

Welcoming the decline in hate crimes, The Committee notes that they remain a problem, as does incitement to hatred, in including politicians (item 15). The committee also recommended focusing on counteracting precisely hate crimes, including by neo-Nazis and Cossacks, to train the police in anti-discrimination skills and how to avoid racial profiling in their work (item 16).

Earlier, on August 3-4, 2017, within the framework of the 93rd session of the ADC Memorial Committee , CrimeaSOS and the SOVA Center together with the International Federation for Human Rights ( FIDH ) presented an alternative report (see press release ). The contribution of the SOVA Center focused mainly on hate crimes and anti-extremist law enforcement.

The RF report, all alternative reports from different NGOs and other documents are available on the page of the 93rd session of CERD .

See also CERD recommendations in several languages, including Russian, here .