Drafting “Popular” Amendments to the Constitution

On January 15, 2020, in his Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation proposed a range of amendments to the Russian Constitution, aimed at the further development of the country19 The President made separate mention of the necessity on holding the country’s citizens voting on the whole package of proposed constitutional amendments, since the given novations would involve significant changes to the political system and the activity of the executive, legislative, and judiciary authorities.

On the same day, the President of the Russian Federation signed an instruction setting up a working group to draft proposals for amending the Constitution of the Russian Federation.20 The working group included nine members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.21

Civil society began actively discussing the draft amendments. In its turn, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation offered its platform as a venue for meetings of the working group, and became a center for the collection and initial processing of “popular” amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Regional civic chambers were also included in the collection and discussion of the amendments to the Constitution.22 Formulated proposals were then forwarded to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for further processing and consideration by the working group.

Over 1150 appeals and proposals from citizens and organizations were forwarded to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, and in total, together with proposals from regional civic chambers, in January-March 2020, the Civic Chamber processed and systemized over 2250 proposals and comments concerning the introduction of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. As a result of the processing, analysis, and assimilation, over 600 proposals were forwarded to the working group and discussed at its meetings.

The Civic Chamber considered twice, before the first and second readings at the State Duma, the key bill on constitutional amendments23 As a result, 11 proposals of the Civic Chamber were included in the bill.

Active public participation at all stages of drafting and discussing amendments to the Constitution became a mainstay of civil society’s consensus surrounding the updated Main Law of Russia.

At present, the legal processing of the new provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is underway. Citizens and organizations are actively discussing various legal initiatives aimed at realizing the “popular” provisions of the Constitution.

The Civic Chamber has become involved with the collection, processing, and presentation to the government of civil society’s position by, among other things, conducting public evaluation of bills developed during the execution of new provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. This work will involve maximum use of the “popular” amendments received by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, which for objective reasons could not be included in the updated text of the Constitution.

Public Observation of the All-Russian Referendum

Considering the increased attention of civil society to the all-Russian referendum on approving changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as civil society’s appeal for maximum objectivity, honesty, and transparency in such referendums, the Civic Chamber proposed the organization of public observation at the all-Russia referendum.

Thousands of volunteers took part in the work of the all-Russia “Constitutional Volunteers” corps, organized by the Association of Volunteer Centers together with the country’s largest youth organizations. 114,000 volunteers from all regions of the Russian Federation contributed to the pending changes, becoming part of a very important historical event. They helped in 3,500 information booths, telling the public about the upcoming referendum and planned amendments, worked at the voting stations, assisting mobilityimpaired people, and also organized volunteers’ events concerning the amendments around the country.

In order to ensure observation efficiency, the Civic Chamber, in conjunction with the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, developed a “Gold Standard” for public observation – a “check list” of all questions concerning the organization and conduct of the referendum, as well as a vote tally at the polling station.

The Civic Chamber signed an Agreement on Cooperation in Observers’ Training and Stationing with 18 political parties and 37 public organizations, and over 1,600 public organizations joined the observers’ corps all over Russia.

A Coordination Council was created under the Civic Chamber, to address the collaboration with political parties in realizing public oversight at the all-Russia referendum.

526,584 public observers monitored the allRussia referendum, including 236,272 observers from political parties, and 290,312 observers represented public organizations and selfnominees; 77 certificates were provided for observers of the all-Russia referendum at voting stations in 31 countries, with approximately 50 foreign nationals working as experts at the referendum in Russia.

From June 25 to July 1, 2020, the Civic Chamber had a Situation Center which throughout the entire referendum kept in contact with the observers around the country, and received, analyzed, and checked information concerning potential violations at the referendum. There were also situation centers in the regional civic chambers.

The Situation Center also conducted real-time Internet monitoring for information concerning potential violations. Analysis of publications on the Internet showed that the voting can be hugely influenced by the creation of negative publicity around unconfirmed news of “fake” violations, and their active distribution in the press and social networks. As a rule, official rebuttal of such information attracts significantly less attention than the fake news itself, which explains growing attraction among hackers.

All messages received by the Situation Center and the Civic Chamber hotline were monitored by observers and members of regional civic chambers. Upon confirmation of discrepancies, regional civic chambers and observers were able to rectify them. The civic chambers of all 85 regions of Russia regularly forwarded to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation materials and messages about the situation at the voting stations and the rectification of discrepancies from the “Gold Standard”.

After analyzing the results of the monitoring of the all-Russia referendum, the Civic Chamber developed a package of proposals and recommendations aimed at improving the institution of public observation. In particular, the Chamber proposed: allowing the possibility of the federal budget and the budgets of the Russian regions to compensate the expenses of public observers incurred in the course of them exercising their powers; allowing the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the regional civic chambers the right to send observers to electoral commissions of any level (to regional civic chambers – within the corresponding region) from the moment the electoral campaign is announced, which facilitates the provision of transparency and increases the legitimacy of electoral procedures, regulating vital questions such as control of the collection of signatures for candidates, as well as checking signatures collected.

In view of the growing interest in civil society’s observation of elections, the Civic Chamber is taking measures to: improve the institution of monitoring, including measures aimed at improved collaboration with organizations sending observers; develop the institution of preparing observers; and encourage students of leading law schools to work in situation centers.

Moreover, the introduction is planned of an online system of registration on общественныйнаблюдатель.рф (Public Observer) website to receive and consider observers’ documents, and the updating of the “Gold Standard” of public observation with the aim of improving the wording, as well as preparing public monitoring experts for remote electronic voting.

During the all-Russia referendum on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Civic Chamber invited over 50 foreign experts from over 20 countries. These included deputies of foreign, including European, parliaments, and representatives of governing bodies, OSCE, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The foreign experts noted the high level of organization of the referendum and security at voting stations during the pandemic, and showed interest in Russian procedures for electronic voting. A number of experts expressed the willingness to learn from the Russian system when organizing elections in their own countries. The positive experience of foreign public observation allows the question of future access for foreign experts as legitimate observers at Russian elections. The Civic Chamber observation of the elections in foreign countries, for example, of the presidential elections in Belarus in 2010 and the USA in 2012, and of the parliamentary elections in Cambodia in 2018 was also positively evaluated. Considering the unique experience of the Russian Federation in organizing independent public observation of electoral procedures, it seems expedient to develop a practice of attracting observers from the Civic Chamber for monitoring elections abroad.

As a result of the 8-year experience of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the regional civic chambers, it can be said that a new mass public institution has been established to publicly monitor elections, and it successfully protects the vote of every Russian Federation citizen and fights attempts to delegitimize elections.

Legislative Implementation of Constitutional Amendments

Legislators and the Government of the Russian Federation are preparing over 100 federal constitutional laws and federal laws in compliance with new provisions in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The regions make changes to their own legal acts – from the constitution and statutes to individual acts of the Russian regions. The working group for drafting proposals for amendments to the Constitution is working on recording in legislation the proposals of citizens that were not reflected in the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The task of the Civic Chamber here is to provide maximum public participation in the process of realizing amendments to the Constitution. This is achieved, among other means, by conducting public evaluations of relevant legal initiatives, such as happened, for example, with the legal changes proposed by search organizations and aimed at the offsetting up a system of active search for missing people by indentifying the location of their mobile devices using geolocation data. Another example is the collaboration between representatives of civil rights groups in improving the legislation on the provision of housing rights for rehabilitated citizens.24 In both cases, within the framework of public evaluation, the agreement of the socially significant interests of various communities was provided for, and relevant proposals concerning improvements to bills were passed to legislators.

The main task of public evaluation is dialog between, and the agreement of, general public interests and the socially significant interests of various communities, the government, business, and the nonprofit sector. The Civic Chamber conducted a public evaluation which gives an independent public assessment of the regulatory implications of proposed legal solutions, along with a prognosis of the improvement or worsening in the situation of the people and individual social groups, and conditions for the realization of business or public activity.

After the approval of the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, people began to look hopefully at those obligations that were raised to constitutional level — pension indexing, provision of minimum wage (MROT) at no less than subsistence minimum, affordable quality medical care, and affordable quality education. The Civic Chamber sees its task as living up to the expectations of the people.25

The Civic Chamber actively involved itself in the public oversight of the realization of the “popular” amendments to the Russian Constitution. In 2020, within the framework of public evaluation, a series of legal initiatives was considered, aimed at realizing the new provisions of the Main Law of the Russian Federation, including:

• planned amendments to the Law on education concerning mentoring students.26 The Chamber approved a bill with a series of comments, including some concerning the optimization of accountability for teachers, and introduced proposals for the development of mentoring programs;27
• a planned federal law providing the introduction of legal processes to take decisions about removing children from their families if their lives or health are under threat.28 The bill provoked fierce debate, particularly as concerns the proposed order to remove a child from family “within 24 hours”, and the Chamber made a series of serious comments.29 As a consequence, the bill was retracted by members of the legislative initiative and removed from the State Duma consideration;
• planned federal laws on youth policy in the Russian Federation.30 The Chamber generally supported the planned provisions, underlining the necessity for their agreement with the Family Code and other current regulatory acts, noting the inadmissibility of diminishing guarantees for people who fall into the “young adult” category;31
• planned amendments to the Federal Law “On Official Language of the Russian Federation”, with regard to improving the mechanisms for the provision of the status of the Russian language as the official language of the Russian Federation.32 In conclusion of the results of the public evaluation of the bill, the Civic Chamber underlines the necessity to provide a complex system of support for studying the Russian language, including abroad, and introduces proposals concerning the setting of qualifying requirements for knowledge of the Russian language for people deputizing in public office.33.

The Civic Chamber conducts annual public evaluation of the planned federal budget. In the planned federal budget for 2021, and for the planning period for 2022 and 2023, financing is provided for a nationwide plan of action to ensure job and income recovery for the population, as well as unprecedented anti-crisis measures aimed at supporting citizens and the worst-hit branches of the economy. At the same time, the Civic Chamber noted a series of existing shortcomings in the planning of the federal budget:

• the impossibility to make adequate evaluations of the effectiveness of budgetary expenses, due to the absence of measurable target indicators;
• the return, beginning in 2022, of limited expense capping, in full accordance with budget rules;
• significantly reduсed financing for national projects and government programs;
• insufficient spending of the consolidated budget on government support for families and children to ensure population reproduction. According to data from the special “Demographics 2024” report by the Civic Chamber,34 it should be no less than 2.2% of GDP (1.2% is planned for 2021). At the same time, no less than 40% of all investment must be used to support large families (at present it is 8%);
• reduction of financing for projects connected with supporting the nonprofit sector and civil society.

Based on the results of discussions held, in general support of the bill, and accounting for the above-mentioned comments, the Civic Chamber formulated a series of recommendations for the Government of the Russian Federation, including those concerning financial provision for children with rare (orphan) diseases, and the preservation of the level of finance for measures of support for the nonprofit sector and the activities of public development institutions, in the context of demand for the work of socially oriented nonprofit organizations during the pandemic.35

A priority for constitutional amendments is creating conditions for sustainable economic growth in the country and the increased welfare of the people, and the formation of effective social policy. The Civic Chamber records the appeals of the people for qualitative changes to the social sphere. It is clear that social amendments must have a direct impact on the development of government solutions, including documents of strategic planning. In connection with this, in its proposals for the projected single plan for the realization of national aims confirmed by Russian President’s Decree No.474 of July 21, 2020, the Civic Chamber noted the importance of providing constitutional social guarantees.

Considering the current appeal to strengthen the role of civil society in the legislative process, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation proposes to approve additional measures for the improvement of public debating procedures for projected laws and regulations. Federal government agencies must in timely fashion update information about hearings, as well as publish up-to-date revisions of the bills and projected regulations on the official site https://regulation.gov.ru, along with information concerning imminent project hearings in the Civic Chamber and the conclusions and recommendations of the Civic Chamber.