Informal Women’s Groups Forcing Russian Law Enforcement to Pay More Attention to Domestic Violence by Powerful Men

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 4 – Russia lags behind much of the world as far as legislation directed at preventing and punishing domestic violence, and Russian law enforcement and the courts are notorious for failing to take action in cases where powerful men violently attack their wives or children.

            But according to a new survey by the Horizontal Russia portal, where women have organized independently to combat this, they have been remarkably successful, an outcome that few might have expected but one that could encourage others to organize to achieve justice in other spheres as well (semnasem.org/articles/2024/09/04/domashnee-nasilie-v-sisteme).

            The portal offers case studies where women have organized and been successful as well as listing the all-Russian hotline for victims (88007000600) and the sites of three groups assisting them (You are Not Alone at tineodna.ru/, No to Violence at https://nasiliu.net/sos/ and the help page of The Consortium of Women’s NGOs at wcons.net/uridicheskaya-pomochs/#section).