Click here to see the numbers and origins of refugees hosted by Russian Federation.
For Russia country of information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries and relevant documents, please click here.
As UNHCR statistics generally rely on data from host countries, statistics on refugees alone can give an insufficient account of refugee numbers, as some host countries will not grant refugee status to certain groups. Including statistics for individuals in refugee-like situations is an attempt to account for unrecognised refugees and does not include internally displaced persons. Statistics for stateless refugees are included if available.
Association of Assistance to Refugees
www.nevsky-kovcheg.narod.ru / In English
13 Emb. Fontanka river, St. Petersburg, 190011
Tel: +7 81 23 14 28 30
Legal Reception: st. Chernyakhovskogo 29/31, Office 41 (entrance under the archway), St. Petersburg, metro Ligovsky Prospect
Tel: +7 81 27 64 77 62
Main activities legal advice to forced migrants, medical and humanitarian assistance, job placement, job creation and housing arrangement of migrants. The Association has been collecting and analyzing information on legal, social and psychological status of forced migrants, monitoring of legislation and regulatory framework in the field of migration, interaction with authorities and the public.
Children’s Fund of North Ossetia (CFNO)
www.detfond.org (Russian)
362002, Russia, North Ossetia, Vladikavkaz, 3 Pavlovsky pereulok
Tel: +7 86 72 44 74 79
Fax: + 7 86 72 54 34 19
Mobile: +7 92 88 55 91 93
Email: dfed@rambler.ru
Contact Person: Denis Fedorovich, Director
Partners: UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, IREX, USAID,SDR, DRC
Beneficiaries: Refugees and internally displaced persons, families, orphans, lonely elderly, disabled
CFNO provides care for the most vulnerable members of the society; humanitarian relief distribution; needs assessment; monitoring and implementation of community development projects; conducting case management with extremely vulnerable families, advocating on their behalf and conducting legal, social, psychological and medical counseling; promotion of integration of refugees and forced migrants on the territory of North Ossetia-Alania. CFNO is also engage in economic recovery through the implementation of the Quick-Impact Projects aimed at income-generation and self-sustainability.
Civic Assistance Committee
www.refugee.ru
103030 Dolgorukovskaya St. 33, Building 6, Moscow
Tel.: (495) 681-18-23
Tel.: (495) 681-15-32
Fax: 25 15 319
Email: Use contact form at the bottom of this page: http://refugee.ru/ob-organizatsii/kontakty/
Civic Assistance was established in 1990 for the purpose of providing aid to asylum seekers. It was the first public organization in Russia specifically designed to help refugees and forced migrants. From the very start, the Civic Assistance Committee has been providing refugees and forced migrants with legal assistance, public defense in court, assistance in establishing relations official authorities, and the protection of their rights to housing, medical assistance, work and education. For this purpose the Committee members maintain close contact with all the agencies and organizations that are involved in refugee issues: the federal and regional Migration services, the RF State Duma Commission on Refugees, the RF President’s Public Chamber, the offices of public prosecutors, and various education, health care and social security organizations. The Committee is accredited at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and maintains regular ties with that body, as well as with other international organizations. Today the Committee provides legal assistance, organizational and mediatory support, medical assistance, humanitarian aid, training and psychological support.
Committee for Civil Rights
www.zagr.org/731.html (in Russian)
127562, Moscow, st. Sannikov, 7-21 / 129224, Moscow, pr-d Shokalski, d.61 K.1.
Tel/Fax : 47 89 515 or 47 80 847
Email: zagrorg@yandex.ru
Note: reception of citizens are strictly by appointment, which is done by telephone.
Legal advice is available through their website
Inter-Regional Public Charitable organisation “Faith, Hope, and Love”
PYATIGORSK
27-A, Kirova St., Pyatigorsk
Tel: (8793) 97 43 24
Fax: (8793) 39 3808
Email: vnl@kmv.ru or idp@kmv.ru
MOSCOW
11, Myachkovskiy Avenue, Moscow
Tel: (495) 34 61 800
Fax: (495) 34 61 801
Email: oplykina@yandex.ru
The organisation offers legal aid and advice for forced migrants, refugees and other socially unprotected categories of people. This includes counselling; drafting of applications, complaints, and statements of claims; drafting of inquiries on problems of vulnerable persons to different instances; establishment of contacts with government administrative bodies.
‘Memorial’ Human Rights Centre – The Network Migration and Law Programme
www.refugee.memo.ru (in Russian)
Legal address: 12 Malyj Karetnyj pereulok (12 Small Carriage Lane), 103051 Moscow
Centre address: 22 Olimpiyskij prospect,127006 Moscow (Metro: Dostoevskaya) “Civic Assistance Committee”
Opening Hours: Monday-Wednesday 10:00-20:00 and Friday 10:00-15:00
Tel/Fax: +7 (495) 68 11 532 or (495) 68 11 823
Email: Lcrmoscow@mtu-net.ru or refugee_memo@mtu-net.ru
Contact person: Svetlana Gannushkina
Email: svetlana.gannushkina@gmail.com
In 1991 “Memorial”‘s Human Rights Centre was established to organise and coordinate Memorial’s human rights’ work. The Network Migration and Law programme, founded in 1996, was set up by the Center to provide legal assistance to forced migrants. The immediate task of the Network – protection of the rights and legitimate interests of forced migrants – is through provision of free advice, drafting legal documents, and supporting individuals with the administrative bodies and courts. Click here for more details of the legal aid programmes. The Network consists of professional lawyers with extensive experience in dealing with migration and refugee law.
Network Migration and Law is present in 41 regions of Russia, in which more than 80% of all forced migrants reside. They run 50 network ‘stations’, four of which are in the Chechen Republic, three in the Rostov region and Krasnodar territory, and two in Dagestan, Voronezh Oblast and Stavropol Krai. For the contact details of all legal aid offices, visit their Legal Aid Offices page. The Network Coordination Center is located in Moscow, and the program is supported by UNHCR and the European Commission (Aeneas Programme: Financial and technical assistance to third countries in the field of migration and asylum).
To view the website in English, put the website address into Google search box and then select the ‘Translate this page’ option to the right of the website when it comes up, or click here.
Network of Migration and Law
Tel: (81113) 21 222
Contact Person: Sergei Mikhailovich Egorkin, Lawyer
Email: sergejegorkin2008@yandex.ru
Pskov Regional Branch of the Russian Youth Union of Lawyers
Tel: (81153) 90 519 or (81153) 59 531
Fax: (81153) 50 122
Email: jussovetnik@rambler.ru
Contact Person: Denis E. Kozyrev
Pskov Regional Public Movement “Veche”
180016, Pskov, st. Kiseleva, 15/24
Tel: (81124) 66 195
Email: prodvech@ellink.r
NGOs for Specific LGBTI assistance
*We have contacted these organizations but we have not yet received responses from any of them.
Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights
www.demokratia.ru
www.eu-russia-csf.org
Khokhlovsky pereulok 16, str.1, 4th floor, 109028 Moscow
Tel: +7 49 59 16 10 06
Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights is a Russian public policy and advocacy NGO, established in 1998. The Center‘s mission is the development of effective democratic institutions and sustainable mechanisms of human rights protection by influencing public policy in these areas, creating conditions for civic participation in decision making from the level of local communities to the international level and empowering individuals and groups to play a more active role in positive social change. The Center strives to make democracy work for people living in Russia and to assist them in filling democracy with a practical meaning relevant for their lives. CDDHR conducts public policy analysis, monitoring, public education, and advocacy campaigns on a broad range of human rights and democracy issues, including freedoms of association and assembly, security of human rights defenders, racism and xenophobia, human rights in the army, and links between corruption and human rights abuse.
Human Rights Charitable Society: “Right to Life and Human Dignity”
www.civilsoc.org/nisorgs/russwest/moscow/colleen/hdignity.htm
103982 Moscow, 4 Louchnikov per., kom. 19
Tel: +795 20 68 589
Email: vky@co.ru
This society was founded in 1990 in order to oppose the use of capital punishment in the former USSR and other gross violations of the right to life. The group uses as its guiding principle Articles 3 and 5 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights….The Society provides legal assistance to those facing the death penalty. The group also participates in various humanitarian projects in prisons. Direct charitable aid is provided on a case-by-case basis to socially unprotected categories of the population through donations of basic goods (food, clothing, etc.). The Society also monitors human rights, especially in the legal process of capital cases.
International Society for Human Rights–Russia
www.civilsoc.org/nisorgs/russwest/moscow/colleen/intsochr.htm
103715 Moscow, 4 Slavyanskaya Plotted, Str. 1
Tel: +795 92 44 701
Email: info@ishr.org
The International Society for Human Rights advocates human rights and international adherence to the principles embodied in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, focusing on issues of freedoms of opinion and expression, movement, religion, information and association…. SHR provides direct support and assistance to victims of human rights abuses and their families through social assistance programs. This comes in various forms, from legal services to donations of food, clothing and medical supplies. ISHR also participates in legislative reform and development through offering consultation to state bodies on ways to improve protection of human rights. Under the auspices of their international office, ISHR conducts investigations into individual cases of human rights violations and undertakes more general research into critical situations where human rights are believed to be in danger.
Memorial-International Historical-Cultural, Human Rights and Charitable Society
http://www.friends-partners.org/CCSI/nisorgs/russwest/moscow/colleen/memorial.htm
103051 Moscow, Malii Karetnii per. 12
Tel: +795 20 06 506 (Human Rights Center)
Soon after it began its work commemorating the victims of political repression, the group expanded its work to include related historical and cultural research, human rights monitoring and providing humanitarian assistance to certain groups of the population (mainly pensioners)….The human rights aspect of Memorial’s work today includes some individual casework, but mainly focuses on sending professional fact-finding missions to areas of armed conflict and ethnic strife in the former Soviet Union. Recently, research trips have been made to Chechnya, Transcaucasia and Moldova. Memorial has also begun work to develop human rights education programs with assistance from Amnesty International and other international organizations.
Russian Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights
www.civilsoc.org/nisorgs/russwest/moscow/colleen/lawyrhr.htm
191194 St. Petersburg, ul. Chaikovskogo 28, kom. 31
Tel: +7 812-272-49-61
Founded in 1991, the Russian Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights was formed by a group of Russian lawyers with the intent of moving the Russian legal system closer to the international standard with regard to the protection of human rights…. The Committee currently works on individual cases of human rights violations, providing inexpensive (or in some cases pro bono) legal services to individuals and other human rights-related NGOs. The Committee regularly consults with state and judicial bodies on the creation and modification of Russian laws governing human rights issues. In recent years, the Committee has provided detailed analysis and commentary on new legislation at both the federal and local levels, stressing the need to meet international standards of legal protection of rights. The group has also arranged for professional training programs for lawyers and human rights activists as well as public education on legal aspects of human rights protection. The Committee holds several seminars and lectures in Moscow and St. Petersburg throughout the year.
Wings–Association for the Defense of Homosexuals
www.civilsoc.org/nisorgs/russwest/moscow/colleen/wings.htm
191186 St. Petersburg
PO Box 108
Tel: +781 23 12 31 80
The Association began to work on behalf of gays and lesbians in the summer of 1990. It took nearly a year to gain official recognition for the organization. On October 9, 1991, after a year of court battles, it became the first officially registered homosexual group in the Soviet Union. The activities of the group include not only human rights casework, but also designing social support programs and organizing cultural events for the homosexual community. Since the repeal of the anti-sodomy law in 1994, the main focus of the group’s work has turned toward eradicating the extreme and often violent problem of homophobia in Russia. The group has received a significant amount of press coverage in newspapers and on radio and television. The group sees public education on the nature of homosexuality as a key element in their work, especially given the lack of exposure most of the population has had to the homosexual community.