Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial” held two side events on the situation of migrant children in the CIS countries and the strategic litigation of cases of discrimination during the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw in September 2018.
On September 18, 2018 during the side event “Possible alternative to immigration detention of children in Russia and the other CIS countries” organized by ADC Memorial, experts from several countries of the region spoke about the system of transit of children to the country of their origin and conditions in the special centers for minors. The participants discussed the best practices of humanizing the transit system for minors, as well as the need to abolish detention of children based on their immigration status.
During this side event ADC Memorial has also presented its new human rights report “Migrant children in the CIS countries: lack of adequate legal norms governing the cooperation of the countries involved”. The report analyzes the transit practices of minors and the corresponding legislation of the CIS countries. The experts arrived to the conclusion about the need to replace the outdated Chisinau Agreement on the transit of children (“The Agreement on cooperation of the CIS states on the return of minors to countries of their permanent residence”, 2002) with new bilateral regulations on readmission/repatriation of children, which would take into account the modern standards of children’s rights.
The side event “Strategies in overcoming discrimination in Eurasia region”, which took place on September 20, 2018, discussed various forms of multiple discrimination of vulnerable groups. The speakers discussed the problems, which were characteristic of all countries of the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as the experience of protecting representatives of vulnerable groups, including women, Roma, LGBTI people, people with disabilities. In order to achieve greater efficiency in strategic litigation, human rights defenders suggested using positive experience in national and international courts, described in the new publication of the ADC Memorial “Protection against Discrimination: Experience in Successful Legal Cases” (in Russian).
As part of the OSCE events, the experts of ADC Memorial also spoke at the FIDH side event “Human Rights in Contested Entities: The Price of Living in the ‘Black Holes’ of International Law”, and participated in plenary sessions on Roma rights, migrants’ rights and ensuring equal opportunities for women and men.
Photos: OSCE/Piotr Dziubak