Adolescent Reproductive Health, Including HIV/AIDS

The Constitution guarantees free health care to all citizens, legal residents, and refugees. The services are provided by the state and municipal health care system. The Soviet Union was one of the first countries to provide specialized gynaecological care for children and adolescents. Currently, there are special units for youth within health clinics in cities with populations of 300,000-500,000. In 1993, the government adopted a family planning policy. The Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the Russian Family Planning Association, initiated a mass media campaign to promote the use of modern contraception. Approximately 500 state family planning centres and about 100 private youth clinics and centres serve adolescents and youth.

Adolescents over 15 years have the right to give their informed consent in case of surgery, which would include abortion; those under 15 years must obtain the consent of their parents.

The Ministry of Health has issued an order according to which HIV positive pregnant women and newborn children stay in the infectious diseases departments of maternity homes. However, adolescent girls are not specified. The “Law on the Prevention of the Spread in the Federation of the Disease Caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)”was passed in 1995. It guarantees the right of HIV-infected individuals to medical care. An earlier law, “On the Prevention of AIDS morbidity,” guarantees the right to anonymous and confidential diagnostic testing.

Girl's education

The Federal Law on Education guarantees the right to free access to education for all citizens regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, place of residence, religious belief, age, health, or social or economic status. Both primary and secondary education are compulsory. School attendance is mandatory through the secondary level. The Federal Programme “Children of Russia”, which governs family planning programmes, also regulates reproductive health for adolescents. The programme is designed to: provide information on sexual health; elaborate new approaches for teaching adolescents and their parents about sexual and reproductive matters; strengthen family and school responsibility for the sexual health of adolescents; and provide family planning facilities with modern equipment and methods of contraception. In 1999, the Ministry of Health adopted an order aimed at practical implementation of the federal law entitled “On the Main Guarantees of Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation” which provides that sexual health should be provided in health clinics for children under 17 years.

Labour and employment

The new Labour Code retains prohibitions against the regular employment of children under the age of 16 and also regulates the working conditions of children under the age of 18, including banning dangerous, night time, and overtime work.

Gender issues

There is a federal law “On the Guarantee of Children's Rights” which affirms the right of children to be free from violence.

Chronic, long-term situations of domestic violence can be prosecuted under Article 113 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the “systematic infliction of blows or other acts bearing the nature of torture.”

In 1995, the Duma's Committee on Women and Youth began drafting Russia 's first law focusing on domestic violence, “On the Fundamentals of Social-Legal Defence Against Violence in the Family.” As of late 1997, the law had gone through 40 drafts and was still being deliberated.

Under the 1996 Criminal Code, statutory rape is defined as sexual relations between a person 18 years or older, and one who has clearly not reached the age of 16. If such relations occur with a person under the age of 14, it is classified as an indecent sexual assault. Penalties run from three to six years in prison and in an aggravating circumstance extending that time to four to 10 or eight to 15 years. Producing, distributing, selling, and advertising child pornography is illegal. The 1996 Criminal Code outlaws the sale and/or trafficking of children.

International Conventions

Russia has ratified both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Age at first marriage

The Family Code provides that each married partner must be 18 years old. The law provides exceptions for those who are 16 years old. Parental consent must normally be given when marriage occurs under the age of 18, but local authorities have the power to lower the minimum age of marriage without the consent of the parents.