CIAO DATE: 01/2013
December 2012
Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre
This policy brief argues that international humanitarian law (IHL) plays a crucial role in Russia’s international policy and normative convergence with the international community. For Russia, the acceptance of dominant norms and their implementation are the core criteria for integration into the normative order that is being formed across the globe. Yet this process is hindered by at least two obstacles. The first is the politicisation of legal norms, which results from their different interpretations based on different worldviews. Russia accuses the major Western countries of using humanitarian arguments to cover up their geopolitical goals, while the West accuses Russia of failure or reluctance to investigate mass-scale crimes against civilian populations committed in the north Caucasus region. The second impediment to the effective implementation of civilian protection norms in Russia is the dysfunctional Russian state, ineffective security governance and the low quality of legal expertise. Russia’s problems with the implementation of IHL reflect a wider set of problems with the country’s deficient political system, including the lack of parliamentary control over executive power, the weakness of Russia’s political parties, the Kremlin’s control over the mass media, electoral fraud, and the state’s crusade against independent NGOs. As a result, civilian protection issues have unfortunately been marginalised in the Russian public discourse.
Resource link: Civilian protection in Russia: legal issues and political interpretations [PDF]