Gender equality in the Russian Federation within the framework of the Council of Europe standards (1996-2022)

Achieving gender equality is an important problem that has existed from the past to the present and is not yet known whether it can be solved. Both national governments and the international community show that they are committed to tackling this problem, which continues to evolve in different areas of life. Although the problem of equality between women and men in society dates back to ancient times, this problem has become an important part of the global agenda thanks to the struggle of the international women's movement that rose in the twentieth century and the active work of the United Nations Organization (UN) immediately after its establishment. Since the establishment of the UN, the development of norms and standards for ensuring equality between women and men has become one of the important areas of international cooperation. On the basis of this cooperation, significant progress has been made in the legal regulation of gender equality. Most international standards on gender equality have been drafted and adopted by the UN. In addition to the UN, at the regional level, the Council of Europe has been committed to equality between women and men since its establishment and has played a significant role in the formulation and development of international standards in this field. As a result of the determined efforts of the international community, there are now an impressive number of international legal standards on gender equality. However, the issue of states' compliance with international gender equality standards remains a major topic of debate on both national and international agendas. From this point of view, the thesis sheds light on the gender equality standards of the Council of Europe and evaluates the harmonization process of the Russian Federation, which joined the Council of Europe as the 39th member in 1996, by revealing the state policy, changes in domestic legislation and observations in the practice of implementation in fulfilling its responsibilities. In line with this main objective, the thesis consists of three chapters in total. The main conclusion of the thesis is that full harmonization with international gender equality standards has not been achieved in the Russian Federation, which is a member of the Council of Europe until 2022. The thesis also concludes that the perspective of the Russian Federation on gender issues is partially different in comparison with the Council of Europe.