„Dokumenty!”

Discrimination on grounds of race is a reality for many members of ethnic or national minority groups in the Russian Federation. This report highlights particular patterns of racial discrimination and their effect on the everyday lives of the women, men and children in the Russian Federation who are denied their full human rights because of their colour, race, ethnicity, descent or national origin. Some groups are targeted disproportionately by police for checks of their identity documents, often leading to arbitrary detention or ill-treatment. Asylum-seekers and refugees suffer the additional difficulty that their’documentation is not recognized by the police. In some regions whole communities are denied a range of economic, civil and political rights, including their right to citizenship. As in many other countries, law enforcement agencies in the Russian Federation often reflect rather than challenge discriminatory attitudes in society at large. Many racist attacks are not reported to the police because the victims fear further abuse. The result is that victims of racist crime rarely see justice done. In October 2002 Amnesty International launched a major worldwide campaign against human rights abuses in the Russian Federation, Justice for everybody.