The current agenda defines the state of civil society not less than statistical data and sociological measurements. The expert component of public activity is the content of interaction between society and government.
In 2018, civil society was involved in resolution of numerous conflicts. Thus, these were the activists, who forced the state authorities, local governments to become focused on environmental issues, to preserve, rehabilitate landfills, to attend to the construction of waste recycling plants, to control more strictly and prevent air pollution, water bodies. This work is not finished, constant efforts are needed here, and being under pressure from the public, the authorities understand this today.
The NPOs paid a lot of attention to social issues, helping children, families in difficult life situations, disabled people, generally considered the problems of poverty, social injustice, trying to remedy the situation, to make their contribution to its improvement. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation made a comprehensive investigation of this problem at the “Community” Forum in Ufa in April 2018, together with representatives of various subject regions of the Federation.
The public did not stand aloof from discussing pension reform, the quality and accessibility of medical care, and made a great contribution to improving the housing and utilities system by organizing effective control over management companies where they were inactive.
Social infrastructure development depends directly on the success of the economy. In its turn, economic development in the modern world is closely linked to innovation. Our country has been working successfully for a long time on search, support of talented people, aimed at the companies’ targets. For 25 years, the Innovation Assistance Fund has been operating in the country, with a network of regional representatives in 72 regions of the Russian Federation. During this time, the fund supported more than 32 thousand projects, including 6500 startups and 17 500 young innovators. The Fund has financed 410 projects within the framework of the implementation of plans for activities (road maps) of the National Technology Initiative in the amount of almost 7 billion rubles. And yet this is clearly not enough to recognize that today all conditions have been created in Russia to develop and implement breakthrough solutions: the number of innovations is still small, the created innovation system as a whole remains ineffective202 Why does the innovative system stall, how to raise the champion companies and who should build bridges between science and industry? // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 20.06.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45721..
The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation repeatedly addressed this problem. In the course of the expert discussions, it was founds that barriers to innovation remain. Firstly, the public procurement system today works by a single criterion – the price, while innovators with their new proposals often turn out to be uncompetitive, government orders should be focused on creating products with a long-term perspective203 Startup valley, venture funds, acceleration programs: drivers of innovative economy development // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 21.06.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45737.. Secondly, the lack of practice of issuing a loan for the idea. There is still no reliable system for evaluating startups. Innovators, as a rule, have an idea and need funds for its development, and getting a loan with just an idea, even expressed in a patent, is almost impossible. Thirdly, there is no system for evaluating the practical relevance of patents. Fourthly, there remains unbalanced antimonopoly policy.
It is essential to take into account the views and experience of business and trade unions when making responsible decisions by the authorities in the field of industrial and economic policy204 Why does the innovative system stall, how to raise the champion companies and who should build bridges between science and industry? // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 20.06.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45721..
The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation receives many inquiries from businessmen and the Chamber tries to help in protecting small, medium and large businesses.
However, there are many different systemic problems that also need to be addressed, including at the legislative level.
In particular, the conditions for the withdrawal of self-employed citizens from the shadows have not yet been properly worked out. The earlier reform of their legalization did not bring the expected results (a little more than a thousand people were legalized).
In 2018, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held a zero reading of two different bills on self-employed citizens: April 6-draft law by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation205 “Self-employed people are not criminals, it is important to take them out of the shadows” – Lydia Mikheeva // Site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 06.04.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/44848., June 14-draft law by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation206 The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation will prepare its concept of the legal status of the self-employed // Site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 14.06.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45648.. The main problem, according to public activists, is that the authorities cannot find a unified approach to determining the status of self-employed citizens. It is important not only to create comfortable conditions for legal registration of entrepreneurship, but also to make communication with the fiscal authorities for these people as simple, safe and mutually beneficial as possible207 The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation will prepare its concept of the legal status of the self-employed // Site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 14.06.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45648..
On November 15, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a package of laws on conducting in four regions (Moscow, Moscow and Kaluga Regions, Tatarstan) an experiment on imposing a tax on professional income (the Law on Self-Employed)208 The State Duma adopted the law on income tax for self-employed // Interfax, 15.11.2018: https://www.interfax.ru/russia/637958..
Also, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation noted the importance of supporting social entrepreneurs. This type of business creates not only an economic effect, but also a social one: it makes you move from a passive position – “the state solves all problems” – to the position “I saw the problem – I took it and managed it”209 Based on the materials sent at the request of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, from the Civic Chamber of the Republic of Bashkortostan.. On November 14, 2018, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held a zero reading of the draft law developed by the Ministry of Economic Development. In general, the Civic Chamber supports the bill210 The bill as a symbol: easy start for social entrepreneurs // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 14.11.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/47311..
During the work of the section “Economic development and improvement of the quality of life of people” at the final “Community” Forum in Moscow on November 2, 2018, it was noted that no department is responsible for the production of competitive non-commodity goods today. There are no breakthrough solutions in the implementation of the National Project “Small and Medium Entrepreneurship”. Thus, experts note that support for small and medium-sized businesses will only have a positive result when the reforms of control and supervisory bodies are completed. And the issue of reform must be taken under public control.
It is from the position of creating conditions for the development of innovations and the reflection of the provisions laid down in the May Presidential Decree of September 27, 2018 in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation the draft federal budget for 2019 and the planning period 2020 and 2021 were discussed. Social activists noted that, unlike budgets of the past years, the document demonstrates a consistent approach to solving important problems.
At the same time, members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation made a number of comments on the parameters of the submitted draft budget. In particular, serious doubts were raised by the reasonableness of the rates of economic growth presented in the forecast211 Restrained optimism and emphasis on national projects: the draft budget until 2021 was examined by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation// Site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 27.09.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46725..
Social policy has traditionally been the focus of attention of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.
Ensuring equality of citizens in access to social and economic benefits, income growth and improvement of the quality of life of all social groups was the main topic of discussion at the “Community” Forum on April 24-25 in Volga Federal District. It noted that ensuring a high quality of life for all social categories requires a new approach.
During the forum, a lot of proposals were made, submitted later for consideration to the public authorities, in particular:
As a follow-up to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 29, 2017 № 240, on the basis of which the beginning of the Decade of Childhood was announced213 Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 19.11.2018 № 662 “On the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the implementation of state policy in the field of protection of family and children” // Official Internet portal of legal information: http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001201811190012., the Government of the Russian Federation developed the Action Plan214 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 6, 2018 №1375-r.: http://static.government.ru/media/files/sZ1Pt6qoNGaXsiXVpTXlSJc3svtwE2HE.pdf.. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation became an active participant in the development of this plan, and some of its proposals were included in the final version of the document, including those related to the analysis of the efficiency of social support measures for families with children, holding a “gift to a newborn” campaign in the subject regions of the Russian Federation, determining the content of child care services, establishment of requirements for specialists in child care.
The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, in accordance with the Government’s plan (para.94), has received the right to develop proposals aimed at reforming the system of prevention of abandonment and juvenile delinquency, the end result of which will be a reduction in the number of street children and abandoned children215 Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 19.11.2018 № 662 “On the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the implementation of state policy in the field of protection of family and children” // Official Internet portal of legal information: http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001201811190012..
In 2018, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation held a contest of social innovations and services quality “All the Best to Children!” In accordance with the recommendations of regional civic chambers and authorities, 175 non-governmental non-profit organizations took part in the contest, 103 of which passed expert selection and voluntary certification with the award of the “The Best to Children” quality mark.
For the second year, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has a hotline for removal (withdrawing) of children from families. During this time, the Chamber has considered more than a dozen of such cases.
During the discussions at the Chamber’s events, it was noted that in the regions there were cases of de facto discrimination of children on a social basis, when children are withdrawn from low-income families and transferred to substitute families, who are paid quite enough funds for the maintenance of minors216 Poverty is not a reason to take the children out of the family: Social activists get into argument with officials//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 26.04.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45070..
One of the discussion forums of the “Community” Forum in Ufa was dedicated to this issue. The arguments of public activists have caused mixed reactions from the officials present. Nevertheless, during the discussion the guardianship authorities were suggested to exclude the material security of the family from the criteria on which the child’s withdrawal from the family is decided217 Scandal in Ufa: officials did not want to talk about the removal of children for poverty // IA Regnum, 28.04.2018: https://regnum.ru/news/2409940.html..
In addition, there are quite a number of complaints to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation from the potential surrogate families and the actions of the guardianship authorities. Their work remains bureaucratic, reliable information to the candidates to parents about children is not provided in a timely manner, due to which the process of placing a child in a family is prolonged218 “Wall of misunderstanding between potential parents and officials”//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 08.08.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46217.. There is no open information on the priority of adoption, and this allows the guardianship authorities to demand money for adoption of children, as, for example, happened in Sverdlovsk Region219 Russia’s Investigative Committee checks media reports on child trafficking by guardianship authorities in Yekaterinburg//Kommersant, 04.04.2018: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3593288..
The Civic Chamber organized a hotline to identify the problems faced by potential caregivers and parents220 Hotline for candidates for guardians or adoptive parents facing problems, opened in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 03.08.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46184..
It is obvious that the system of family organization of children needs reforming. This year, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation started developing a draft law on changing the procedure for family placement of children, in particular, it is proposed to introduce a psychological examination of the family, including family members living with the guardian / adopter. In August 2018, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation hosted a roundtable on “Improving legislation in the field of family structure”. The participants made recommendations to the document. The Ministry of Education promised to take into account the views of adoptive parents and experts221 Acting in the interests of children: the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation discussed a bill tightening the requirements for adopting parents and guardians//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 30.08.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46382..
Within the framework of the project “Technologies for Children”, digital solutions are being developed at the site of the Civic Chamber aimed at increasing the transparency and efficiency of the sphere of family planning and system help to families with children, including the adopted ones: “Electronic portfolio of a child using distributed registry technologies”222 Innovations in social sphere and education: a breakthrough with blockchain technology //Site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 20.06.2018:https://oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45716., “Tablet of specialists of guardianship and trusteeship bodies”, “Special Child’s Opportunities Map”223 “Special Child’s Opportunities Map: A project for parents raising children withdisability // Site of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 06.09.2018:https://oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46464..
An important topic for the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is the monitoring of organizations for orphans. Since 2015, Russia has been reforming the system of orphanages. They must depart from the previous methods of work of barracks, collective institutions. The new federal requirements are designed to make the organization of temporary places of assistance and rehabilitation, arranged by family type.
The monitoring was organized by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation in 2018 and took place in all regions of the Russian Federation with civic chambers engaged. Criteria for assessing the work of organizations for orphans were determined with the engagement of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation224 “It is necessary to create conditions and return orphans to families” – Elena Alshanskaya // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 09.02.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/43954.. The Chamber acts as a methodical center for the regional chambers in the process of monitoring.
The main task of the research is to understand whether the quality of life of the child has changed in the organization after the entry into force of the RF government Regulation of May 24, 2014 No. 481 “On activities of organizations for orphans and children left without parental care, and on children left without parental care”. According to the results of monitoring, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation will analyze not only the activities of organizations for orphans, but also the activities of regional boards on organizing the engagement of NPOs representatives in public monitoring.
Another problem for orphans, raised by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation is the absence legal of obligations assigned to any of the departments to provide care when an orphaned child is hospitalized or left without parental care. As practice shows, in a large number of medical institutions in Russia, children left without parental care are deprived of proper care. To such a child, sometimes for a day, nobody of the medical staff approaches even once throughout a day, either to feed, or to give water or to change diapers. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has repeatedly drawn this intolerable situation to the attention of the health and care authorities. However, there must be an interested and constant engagement of both citizens and NPOs to achieve the obvious: no child without parents under five should stay in the hospital ward without supervision, one of the adults should always be with him – a medic, a nanny, a volunteer. The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation proposes to respond to each case of abandonment of the orphan in danger, to make a list of medical institutions, where such cases are recorded, in order to establish order in these institutions225 NPO call for escorting orphans in hospitals // Social Information Agency, 12.02.2018: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2018/02/12/deti-siroty-bolnitsy/.
It was also proposed to introduce a nurse in orphanages, who could accompany children during long-term treatment, as well as legalize assistance to pupils of orphan institutions by adding it to the list of services of socially oriented NPOs funded from the state budget226 Orphans in hospitals will be placed under the supervision of nannies from NPO // ommersant, 26.12.2016: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3181693..
An important problem in preserving the health of the younger generation is the provision of psychological, educational, medical and social assistance to children from birth to three years old. Such assistance helps to identify features and disorders in the child’s development to prevent or correct pathologies. Now the service of early help is provided only periodically, although it is obvious that it should be continuous and family oriented. In 2016, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted the Concept for the Development of Early Assistance in the Russian Federation227 The Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of August 31, 2016 N 1839-p “On approval of the Concept for the development of early assistance in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020”: http://static.government.ru/media/files/7NZ6EKa6SOcLcCCQbyMRXHsdcTmR9lki.pdf., which stipulates that there should be regional systems of early assistance in the subject regions of the Federation.
But the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, having considered this issue with the involvement of specialists, came to the conclusion that the measures taken were not enough, it was proposed to create working groups by region, consisting of representatives of departments, socially oriented NPOs, entrepreneurs and experts, in order to transfer the main powers to identify early stages of life impairment in the development of the child and the provision of rehabilitation to the health care system, as well as to enshrine in law the term “early help”228 Early assistance to children: in time to identify violations and begin rehabilitation // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 28.05.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45420..
During the direct line of the President of the Russian Federation on June 7, a multi-child mother from Tomsk addressed Vladimir Putin with a complaint that she did not receive a plot of land she is entitled to by the law229 Direct line with Vladimir Putin: comments of public representatives on the most urgent issues//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 07.06.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45583.. Another multi-child family was denied benefits due to lack of permanent residency registration230 Multi-child family was denied benefits due to lack of permanent residency registration // Saratov24, 14/08/2018: https://saratov24.tv/news/mnogodetnoy-seme-ne-khoteli-predostavlyat-lgoty-iz-za-otsutstviya-postoyannoy-propiski/.. These and many other petitions have shown again how many problems remain for multi-child families.
In April 2018 the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation conducted a poll among three thousand multi-child families from 53 regions of Russia to find out what social support measures are in demand, what measures are effective, what are needed, but not easy to obtain and what are not needed at all. It turned out that most parents were concerned about medicine, housing and land plots231 Multi-child families are not aware of the benefits they are entitled to // Izvestiya, 23.04.2018: https://iz.ru/724601/roman-kretcul/mnogodetnye-semi-ne-znaiut-o-polozhennykh-im-lgotakh. . The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation had prepared proposals for the draft bill on the status of a multi-child family232 Big poll of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation: 3000 families from all over Russia talked about difficulties in obtaining benefits//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 09.04.2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/44852..
According to the Federal State Statistics Service, 611 436 divorces were registered in Russia in 2017, and in the first half of 2018 almost 349 368 divorces, which is by 1550 more than in the same period of last year. In this case, 190 300 divorced pairs had one child, and 170 057 had two or more children. There are often situations when one parent illegally deprives the child from the other parent. According to the data provided by the Federal Bailiff Service, in the first seven months of 2018 the office recorded 560 such cases233 Childhood after family: Russia discusses how to protect minors from vigilanteism of divorced parents // RT, 24.09.2018: https://russian.rt.com/russia/article/557700-sazhat-v-tyurmu-ne-stoit-v-rossii..
Today, the offender parent can incur only administrative responsibility in the amount of two to three thousand rubles for the abduction of a child, and for a repeated violation-from four to five thousand rubles or get an administrative arrest for up to 15 days. And when divorced, wealthy parents, despite the decisions of the courts, practically steal children, constantly change their place of residence, keep mothers in complete obscurity about the fate of children.
The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation has repeatedly pointed to the inadmissibility of such situations234 St. Petersburg deputies call for improving the law on the place of residence of children after divorce // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 10/18/2018: https://www.oprf.ru/press/832/newsitem/46958.. During the discussion of the problem of family kidnapping in April 2018, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation raised the issue of introducing criminal liability for abduction of children by one of the parents if the parent repeatedly commits an offense and if the court decision is not executed. In this regard, it is important to expand the functions of bailiffs, who should monitor the execution of the court decision235 Family kidnapping: what to do when a child is kidnapped by a parent? // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 26.04.2018: https://oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/45091..
The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation responded to the events that required quick civil intervention. Thus, after an outrageous case in one of the private kindergartens of Astrakhan, in which the teacher treated children cruelly, it considered the problems of pre-school education and offered to return the concept “nursery” to the Federal Law of December 29, 2012 No. 273-ФЗ “On Education in the Russian Federation “and the definition of childcare and care as a public social service, and suggested the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation to adopt the developed draft standard of the nanny (child minding employee) and introduce compulsory certification or licensing for child minding services236 “Safety in private kindergartens should be strictly regulated” – Sergey Rybalchenko // Site of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, 10.08.18: https://www.oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46228.. In November 2018 year this standard was approved by the Ministry. In accordance with it, in 2019, with the support of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, projects on the creation of regional systems of certified nannies will be implemented.
On October 17, 2018, a massacre was committed at Kerch Polytechnic College. According to investigators, the attacker was a student of the fourth year of the college. After the attack, a young man committed suicide237 Tragedy in Kerch: efforts to address communities that promote violence among adolescents are insufficient//Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, 18.10.2018: https://oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/46954.. This tragic case is not the first one in Russia.
As practice shows, such cases are often provoked by negative messages spread on the Internet. According to the Monitoring Center “Security 2.0”, which operates under the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, groups containing dangerous content have begun to appear more often on social media238 “Security 2.0”: Spread of online communities on Columbine School massacre alarming // Website of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation 13.03.2018: https://oprf.ru/press/news/2018/newsitem/44474.. And, according to experts, the popularity of online violence a