The Equal Rights Trust and the United Nations Human Rights Office have launched the Russian edition of the United Nations Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation (English edition available here).
The Practical Guide is the outcome of a unique partnership between the Trust and the Human Rights Office, established in response to requests from equality activists in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere seeking clear, definitive guidance on States’ obligations in this area of law. The result of a three-year collaborative project involving exhaustive legal research and consultation with states, experts and activists from across the globe, the Guide was launched at the University of Peace in Costa Rica, as part of Human Rights Week 2022. Both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a group of 30+ UN independent human rights experts called on states to use the publication of the Guide as “catalyst to action”.
Since the launch of the English edition, the two organisations have worked together to promote its use. In early 2023, we held 12 online consultation events engaging hundreds of activists from 70+ different states, in all global regions. During 2023, the Guide was translated into Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish by the UN Human Rights Office, It was also translated into national languages by national human rights institutions in Brazil and the Republic of Korea and by a civil society organisation in Japan.
To mark the launch of the official Russian edition of the Practical Guide, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Regional Office for Central Asia organised a launch event in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 16 April, which was streamed to audiences across the region. The event was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and other senior government officials, representatives of the Trust and the Human Rights Office and the UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Claudia Mahler. A second event was held for stakeholders in Kazakhstan on 19 April.
These two events formed part of a week-long joint mission by the Trust, the Human Rights Office and the Independent Expert, during which they engaged with government, legislators and civil society on the need for the two countries to enact comprehensive equality laws. The Equal Rights Trust has been supporting civil society efforts to develop and advocate for equality law reform for a number of years. In 2016, the Trust co-published Looking for Harmony and In the Name of Unity, comprehensive reports on discrimination and inequality on Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, respectively, which combine evidence of the lived experience of groups exposed to discrimination on different grounds with an in-depth analysis of the legal framework on equality and non-discrimination.
