VZCZCXRO0015
PP RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #1836/01 1981054
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171054Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4282
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 5339

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MOSCOW 001836 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/ECA, PRM/MCE AND EUR/RUS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.  12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF SOCI PHUM KWMN RS
SUBJECT:  RUSSIA:  COMPETING PRIORITIES, POOR FUNDING INHIBIT 
PROTECTION OF DISPLACED WOMEN 
 
REFS:  (A) MOSCOW 1647, (B) MOSCOW 1653, (C) STATE 49661 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Refugee and IDP women in Russia face even greater 
hurdles to equality than their sisters in the native and local 
population (refs A and B).  Frequently they come from cultures in 
which women are subordinate to men, and populations in exile appear 
inclined to cling to outmoded gender roles as a vestige of 
stability.  International organizations are underfunded and short on 
ideas to close the divide.  This is the third in a series of cables 
examining the lives and prospects of women in Russia; it also 
responds to the PRM monitoring request in ref C.  End Summary. 
 
Reluctant Recruits to Russian Routines 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Natives of Afghanistan make up about 90 percent of refugees 
in Russia.  The community is difficult to help with assimilation 
into Russian society, UNHCR Russia Country Representative Gesche 
Karrenbrock observed June 11, because members have an expectation of 
third-country resettlement born from years of near-certain rejection 
by Russian asylum authorities.  With UNHCR technical assistance and 
training, the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) has 
substantially improved its refugee status determination (RSD) 
procedure this decade.  In recognition of FMS's progress, UNHCR 
ceased providing parallel RSD in 2008; however, it still faces the 
problem of ensuring that successful asylum seekers in Russia achieve 
social integration and find livelihoods.  The first order of 
business, Karrenbrock believes, is to convince the GOR to put its 
own social funding into the asylum system. But aid recipients are 
still likely to resist integration in Russia as long as they believe 
resettlement to Western Europe or the U.S. is a realistic option. 
 
¶3. (U) Another challenge for UNHCR protection officers is to 
determine who the true Afghan community representatives are, as this 
is an urban population that is geographically and generationally 
(based on which Afghan regime they were forced to flee) divided. 
Karrenbrock was not familiar with UNHCR's new Heightened Risk 
Identification Tool (ref C).  Traditional participatory assessments 
have shown that a great majority of families want cash assistance, 
an intervention that Karrenbrock rejects because it creates 
dependency.  UNHCR targets cash assistance with a focus on creating 
livelihoods and the understanding of recipients that it is for a 
limited time; eventually it hopes to eliminate cash assistance 
completely. 
 
¶4. (U) Much more sustainable, Karrenbrock asserted, are refugee 
women's gatherings to practice traditional crafts, such as 
embroidery, and discuss common challenges, such as domestic violence 
and spousal unemployment.  A UNHCR local partner, 
Equilibre-Solidarity, provides space for such groups to meet but, to 
save money, has eliminated staff to supervise the meetings. 
Karrenbrock remains frustrated that, although the groups help the 
women to escape the social isolation imposed by traditional Afghan 
gender roles that confine women to the home, they do not actively 
assist with integration into the larger society.  Her staff has 
scheduled the first meeting of a stakeholders working group on 
women, children, and gender issues for August 13, 2009.  (Note: 
This initiative grew out of a shelter working group that developed 
with Embassy Moscow support after Refcoord invited UNHCR and NGO 
representatives to a DVC on homelessness May 14.  End note.) 
 
UNHCR Moscow Approach to SGBV 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Russia's FMS does not recognize sexual and gender-based 
violence (SGBV) as a ground for refugee status.  It does, however, 
according to Karrenbrock, try to find another humanitarian basis on 
which to afford temporary asylum for women who make credible SGBV 
claims.  As part of its government capacity building, UNHCR is 
instructing FMS that women can be construed as a social group under 
the 1951 Refugee Convention.  Unfortunately, FMS interview 
facilities are not appropriate for passing confidential information. 
 In Moscow, up to four individuals are seen at one time in a room 
without partitions, creating potential embarrassment for women with 
sensitive stories to tell; facilities in St. Petersburg are slightly 
better.  FMS has asked UNHCR to fund partitions, but Karrenbrock is 
wary of the precedent of backstopping the GOR on something so basic. 
 Instead, she proposes that UNHCR support FMS in the next round of 
intra-GOR funding negotiations. 
 
¶6. (U) At UNHCR Moscow's Refugee Reception Center, a local-hire 
Social Protection Coordinator (SPC) manages the organization's 
psycho-social response to SGBV.  UNHCR implementing partners and 
staff inform the SPC about suspected cases, and the SPC holds 
reception hours for women at risk.  Women at risk also receive the 
SPC's mobile telephone number, which effectively serves as an SGBV 
hotline, making counseling available day and night.  The SPC advises 
on the development of a personal security plan and measures to take 
 
MOSCOW 00001836  002 OF 004 
 
 
in case of violence; she also records traces of physical violence. 
SGBV cases are recorded on purpose-made forms that are collected by 
UNHCR's Protection Unit for statistical reporting purposes.  The SPC 
also ensures that victims receive medical, psychosocial, and legal 
help - including, where appropriate, cash assistance and referral 
for resettlement.  In emergencies, she identifies possibilities for 
temporary accommodation for victims of violence who cannot safely 
remain in their homes. 
 
¶7. (SBU) According to an internal UNHCR Moscow document obtained by 
Refcoord, the SGBV response mechanism generally runs smoothly; 
however, the same constraints apply here as with other refugee 
protection in Russia.  Many women do not have any identification 
documents, so they are reluctant to make reports to the police; 
Russian law enforcement are insufficiently trained in SGBV response; 
and refugee women lack the means to live separately from their 
abusers.  Offenders are neither prosecuted nor punished, and Moscow 
has no shelters for foreign women-SGBV victims. 
 
¶8. (SBU) UNHCR Moscow does have an established complaints and 
investigations procedure related to exploitation and abuse, but 
Karrenbrock acknowledges that the mechanism is not well publicized. 
The Reception Center furnishes a complaint box, but it has not been 
clear to clients whether complaints are confidential - although in 
fact no one below the Center's director, a member of international 
staff, is able to access its contents.  Karrenbrock says there have 
been no complaints of staff harassment of Center clients but one 
complaint of corruption that bore investigation.  The allegation was 
never proven and in fact may have been a case of attempted FSB 
(Russian security service) entrapment of an honest employee.  The 
case did prompt a revision of the Center's standard operating 
procedures:  reception duties are now rotated so that no employee 
can alone determine what benefits a client receives. 
 
Some Statistics 
--------------- 
 
¶9. (U) UNHCR reports that as of 2007 it had a total of 38 (36 women 
and two men) SGBV cases registered.  Of those, 32 cases remained 
active throughout the year and received support.  A total of six new 
cases were brought to the agency's attention during the year.  In 
2008 there were a total of 43 cases (42 women, one man), of which 33 
received support.  These included six cases of SGBV in the country 
of origin and 27 cases of SGBV in the country of asylum.  In St. 
Petersburg, UNHCR registered four SGBV cases relating to minors.  A 
total of 14 new SGBV cases were brought to UNHCR's attention. 
 
¶10. (U) In 2007-8, UNHCR resettled in third countries a total of 
eight families (seven from Afghanistan and one from Iraq) as SGBV 
victims; two families from Afghanistan were repatriated for the same 
reason.  In 2009 UNHCR has registered four new cases of violence 
against three women and one man in Moscow; and 15 women registered 
earlier have consulted on new cases of domestic violence or 
requested psychological, medical, or cash assistance. 
 
Prisoners of the Mountains 
-------------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) In addition to a lack of adequate shelter, which is their 
main problem, women IDPs in the North Caucasus face similar problems 
to women in the host community, according to UNHCR Vladikavkaz 
Senior Protection Officer Jun Shirato.  This has made it difficult 
to develop particular programs for them, Shirato asserted - UNHCR 
cannot alter an entire society's culture, even as it recognizes that 
traditional practices such as bride abductions may further 
traumatize and disadvantage IDP women. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Because of the prevalence of "adat," the pre-Islamic 
informal customary law, in the North Caucasus, most marriages, 
divorces, custody, property disputes, and other family and civil law 
matters that affect the lives of women are not administered by 
government agencies or the courts in accordance with Russian Law. 
In an expert affidavit solicited by Refcoord in connection with a 
May 2009 in-country admissions referral, the affiant testified, "The 
Russian government has largely abandoned its citizens in Chechnya, 
especially vulnerable ones like women, to the arbitrariness of the 
[President Ramzan] Kadyrov government and abuses committed under 
adat.  There has been no pro-active effort to make the protections 
of Russian law available to residents of Chechnya.  Even when 
Chechen women defy adat and seek the protection of Russian law and 
assistance of the authorities, for example in custody cases (where 
adat holds that children 'belong' to the father's family and may be 
taken away permanently from their mothers), the authorities and 
courts are often unwilling to do their job and even counsel women to 
submit to local traditions instead." 
 
¶13. (U) UNHCR uses its limited resources to focus on assisting IDP 
women with problems related specifically to their displacement.  In 
 
MOSCOW 00001836  003 OF 004 
 
 
collective accommodations it is the women who are the most active in 
bringing their concerns to UNHCR protection staff, Country Director 
Karrenbrock told us.  Their confidence in announcing their needs 
developed in 2000, when most men were off fighting - and frequently 
dying, leaving the women to head their households alone.  After long 
experience of displacement, women in the North Caucasus have become 
articulate, if not organized, in their expressions of frustration 
with poor socio-economic conditions. 
 
¶14. (U) Shirato noted that 40 percent of IDP families in the North 
Caucasus are headed by women.  UNHCR does not register IDPs in the 
North Caucasus, though, so it obtains its data from studies 
undertaken by domestic and international NGO implementing partners. 
As UNHCR's North Caucasus budget does not permit it to offer 
assistance to all IDPs there, national authorities would look 
askance at any registration effort.  Also, as the IDPs are scattered 
in both urban and rural settings across a wide region, some in 
collective centers and some in the private sector, UNHCR has not 
established an IDP committee, making it difficult to evaluate 
whether IDP women enjoy equal leadership opportunities in their 
communities.  UNHCR provides assistance to the most vulnerable 
families, getting involved in about 100 cases a year based on 
information provided by monitors who visit IDP homes.  Any 
assistance to families includes women's sanitary supplies, Shirato 
affirmed. 
 
UNHCR Vladikavkaz Approach to SGBV 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶15. (U) In the fall of 2007 UNHCR Vladikavkaz developed and approved 
an SOP for responding to SGBV.  The document's focus is on legal 
assistance, which the office believes is its strong suit.  The 
office defines its primary role as helping people who want to take 
legal action against perpetrators.  UNHCR leaves it to its 
implementing partners to offer, or make referrals for, medical and 
psycho-social care.  No specific NGOs are mentioned in the SOP, 
however, due to high turnover among voluntary organizations active 
in the region. 
 
Cultural and Security Impediments 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶16. (SBU) Country Director Karrenbrock elaborated on the context in 
which UNHCR is attempting to help North Caucasus IDP women.  People 
there do not have faith in government structures, and are afraid 
that there could even be retaliation for reporting certain crimes. 
But UNHCR is loath to criticize sexist officials (note: such as 
Chechnya's Human Rights Ombudsman, who last winter suggested that 
several female murder victims had brought their fates on themselves 
by wearing provocative clothing; end note) publicly for fear of 
alienating individuals who are essential to resolving other IDP 
issues. 
 
¶17. (U) Also, due to the tense security environment, UN 
international staff can only travel to IDP areas in large armed 
convoys that in effect deter approaches by individuals seeking help 
with sensitive issues.  UNHCR therefore works through domestic 
partners such as NIZAM and Vesta, whose trained social workers can 
move discreetly among their vulnerable countrywomen.    Even so, it 
takes either a very courageous woman to go on to pursue legal 
remedies for her victimization or else creation of so much publicity 
around a case that retaliation becomes too risky for allies of the 
perpetrator to contemplate, Karrenbrock observed. 
 
¶18. (U) International Medical Corps (IMC) Country Director Simon 
Rasin corroborated Karrenbrock's observations in a conversation with 
Refcoord June 6. The North Caucasus is a difficult environment in 
which to get women even to talk about sexual violence, Rasin stated, 
because of a widespread attitude that SGBV should not be discussed 
outside the home but dealt with inside the affected clan or family. 
Teachers at schools where IMC conducts training often say that SGBV 
is a major problem elsewhere but not in their local communities; 
Rasin posits that this is because the teachers do not wish to 
discuss the problem with outsiders.  When IMC makes an income 
generation grant to an SGBV victim, it is at pains to keep secret 
from often equally economically vulnerable community members the 
reason for the individual's selection.  Publicizing the truth could 
result in the victim being ostracized by her family and neighbors, 
Rasin reported, though younger, better educated Chechens, especially 
those who have been abroad, tend to have more accepting attitudes. 
IMC has worked closely with UNHCR protection staff, including 
Shirato and a Chechen attorney who is a former policeman, on 
providing SGBV training to Chechen police officers.  The UNHCR 
speakers lecture on international and domestic legal standards as 
they apply to SGBV cases the officers may see in their work. 
 
¶19. (U) Presumably because of its narrow legal focus, UNHCR 
Vladikavkaz only directly dealt with two cases of SGBV in 2008, both 
 
MOSCOW 00001836  004 OF 004 
 
 
involving rapes of young children - one by a stranger, and one by a 
neighbor.  UNHCR counseled the families.  In the stranger rape case, 
the family proceeded with a criminal prosecution, but in the other 
case the victim's family quietly departed the community where the 
crime had taken place. 
 
¶20. (SBU) Caucasians do not want to come to UNHCR about SGBV issues, 
Shirato concluded resignedly, and UNHCR cannot compel them, though 
it does disseminate information about its legal services.  Her 
office has not been able to figure out a way to be more effective in 
this sphere, Shirato lamented.  Karrenbrock also conceded that, for 
all the good work of its national partners, UNHCR itself needs to do 
more creative thinking about how it can help. 
 
UNICEF Plays Catch-Up 
--------------------- 
 
¶21. (U) UNICEF appears even further behind than its sister agency in 
thinking strategically about insuring that its work benefits the 
sexes in proportion to their needs.  Country Director Bernard 
Bainvel told Refcoord June 16 that he wants to conduct a gender 
audit on some parts of UNICEF's program "at the end of the year." 
Bainvel, who arrived in Russia in September 2008, said he wants to 
introduce more of a gender dimension in UNICEF interventions.  His 
agency needs to look at whether it is able to challenge stereotypes 
of men and women through its psycho-social program as well as 
whether women are comfortable talking about their unmet needs, he 
acknowledged.  Fixed gender roles can harm boys as well as girls, 
Bainvel reflected further.  For example, youth services are mostly 
used by young women; young Caucasian men do not show up because of 
their society's belief that they should not need help. 
 
¶22. (U) Currently, close to 50 percent of UNICEF Russia's program is 
in the North Caucasus, where, Bainvel noted, there is a pronounced 
gender differentiation in parenting.  Bainvel also remarked that the 
choice of when and with whom to get married, or of not to marry at 
all, is restricted for women in the North Caucasus, whether or not 
they are IDPs.  He recalled the case of a woman on UNICEF's own 
North Caucasus staff whose father, because she was still single, 
would not allow her to move to Moscow for a job.  On the positive 
side, Bainvel said UNICEF could successfully draw on the Convention 
on the Rights of the Child, which Russia has ratified, in order to 
escape the trap of perceived cultural relativism in its advice to 
Caucasian beneficiaries. 
 
¶23. (U) Bainvel said he had no figures on how many UNICEF 
beneficiaries are IDPs and no way of collecting them.  He also had 
no statistics on what percentages of UNICEF beneficiaries are boys 
and girls.  The agency tries to keep a 50/50 balance, he reported, 
but does nothing systematic to ensure such equality.  He explained 
that gender awareness is not a matter of counting the number of 
girls but of looking at the life cycle - family, streets, school, 
political participation - and identifying where there is bias. 
 
¶24. (U) UNICEF in Russia does not have a mechanism for beneficiaries 
to complain about sexual harassment.  Perhaps none is necessary in 
Moscow, Bainvel rationalized, as UNICEF supplies little direct 
assistance in the capital.  Arguably the same is true in the North 
Caucasus, where the situation is not classified as an emergency, he 
added.  Bainvel does believe that a complaints mechanism also 
protects the agency that promulgates it, however; he has therefore 
tabled with the UN Country Team the issue of introducing one. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶25. (SBU) UN staff interviewed for this report came across as well 
disposed toward considering special gender-based protection needs; 
however, they had not undertaken systematic or original efforts to 
implement UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women (ref 
C).  Distractions created by Russia's peculiarly challenging 
operating environment - relatively small budgets; urban displaced 
populations; a host government ambivalent about meeting its 
responsibilities under international law - appear to be the main 
culprits in this lag.  We will continue to raise the issue of 
women's special vulnerability with international organization 
duty-bearers and encourage official visitors to do the same. 
 
BEYRLE