Our joint submission details concerns with regard to laws related to sexual violence and procedures and practices which effectively deny access to justice for girls survivors of sexual violence. Specifically, Russia’s legal and criminal justice system provides a number of opportunities for perpetrators to escape criminal liability or punishment, namely through the way sexual violence crimes are defined and through the way sexual violence crimes are investigated and prosecuted.
This submission covers issues particularly relevant to Article 19 (protection from all forms of violence and sexual abuse); Article 24 (right to health and protection from harmful practices); and Article 34 (protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Committee’s General Comments No. 13 (2011) ‘The right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence; and Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019) on harmful practices.