SKOSH Projects in Russia
In our ‘Beyond Resistance’ initiative, we concentrate on supporting the crucial efforts of our sister organization, the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice, and other Russian NGOs and community groups. This direction prioritizes ensuring access to health services and protecting the human rights of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in Russia, focusing on people who use illicit drugs, especially women. Amidst political suppression and societal neglect of these vulnerable populations, we work collaboratively to ensure access to health and advocate for a more humane, rights- and evidence-based drug policy under challenging conditions.
2022-2024. Beyond Resistance
Donor: Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+)
Amount: €221.986
Project goal: To support a flexible model of continuous service provision and advocacy for HIV and mental health services for key populations in Russia and Georgia in the context of political uncertainty.
Expected outcomes: Stichting SKOSH will maintain its commitment to supporting harm reduction service in Moscow, Russia and the “Tbilisi Community Center for Harm Reduction and Mental Health,” through a range of activities. These include strategic planning for key population services, ongoing monitoring of implementation, regular technical assistance visits, organizing study and other capacity building visits, SMM and media support, donor communication and fundraising efforts, developing social entrepreneurship models for sustainability, exploring alternative funding models, and providing administrative support for SKOSH operations in the Netherlands.
2022. Strategic Litigations and Project April
Donor: The Lawyering on the Margins Network (LOTM)
Amount: $4.900
Project goal: This initiative aimed to advance strategic litigation work related to the ‘Project April’ case in the European Court of Human Rights and national courts of the Russian Federation.
Project Summary: “Project April” is Togliatti, Russia’s only harm reduction-focused non-profit organization. It was established by people with lived experience of drug use and dependency. The project aimed to assist people who use drugs, offering harm reduction services and advocating for their rights. However, it faced fierce opposition from local authorities and faced serious challenges since being labeled a “foreign agent” in 2016, resulting in multiple police raids and legal challenges. In 2021, a prosecutor’s investigation led to fines against the organization and its director, Tatyana Kochetkova, totaling 400,000 rubles. April’s partners worked tirelessly to defend the community organization and uphold the rights of marginalized communities. The case highlights the ongoing struggle for harm reduction and human rights in the context of punitive drug policies. The small grant covered nine months of lawyers’ work from April to December 2022, enabling the submission of complaints regarding administrative prosecution with Russian courts and three complaints to the ECHR, addressing violations predating Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe. Collaboration with legal representation was crucial for navigating these legal processes.
2021-2023. Empowering Russia's HIV/AIDS Affected Communities
Donor: Levi Strauss Foundation / Charities AID Foundation
Amount: $100.000
Project goal: To pilot a more flexible structure or work through both Russian and Dutch NGO in the difficult time of political uncertainty and governmental repressions against AIDS-service NGOs working in Russia.
Summary outcomes: In 2021 this grant has allowed to continue the advocacy and capacity-building activities of Stichting SKOSH with the partners from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Together with the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association SKOSH co-participated in the development of an online course Sustainability and Survival: Resilience for civil society organizations working with key populations in EECA region. It has supported the work of the Russian Forum of People who use drugs in providing legal consolations to victims of police raids in nightclubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg. More than 20 consultations were held in 2021 and one complaint on violations by police raids were submitted to court in Saint-Petersburg. SKOSH also continues capacity building including the development of the outreach database for Andrey Rylkov Foundation. This grant will support other advocacy and capacity building activities in 2021.
2019-2021. General support to enhance the health and human rights of marginalized communities in Russia affected by HIV/AIDS through education and technology
Donor: Levi Strauss Foundation
Amount: $100.000
Project goal: To pilot a more flexible structure or work through both Russian and Dutch NGO in the difficult time of political uncertainty and governmental repressions against AIDS-service NGOs working in Russia.
Summary outcomes: The grant allowed to continue the advocacy work together with the Russian partners. This work comprises documenting human rights abuse, reporting it through all available channels; taking action on retribution, including strategic litigation cases and legal aid to the victims. Together with the Russian Forum of People who use drugs and Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network SKOSH prepared several reports to the UN treaties bodies, including the Intermittent report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, data collection on violence against women for the submission to the UN Committee for elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, a shadow report to the UN Human Rights Committee focused on the violations of the rights to protection from discrimination, to gender equality, freedom from torture; and a report for the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on insufficient law enforcement, prison and judicial statistics in public data; a submission to the UN Committee against Torture. SKOSH supported Russian Forum of People who use drugs to prepare in partnership with European Women’s network on AIDS the briefing for CEDAW on the impact of drug policy on women’s rights and gender based violence and participation of Forum’s representative in a session of UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The grant also allowed to support legal aid, for example when a Russian NGO “Project April” has been sued by the local prosecutor under the Foreign Agents Law in spring 2021.
SKOSH helps Russian partners in maintaining the regular communications with mass media,providing interviews, commentary and site visits to the journalists. In 2020 we collaborated with BBC, Vice, Radio Svoboda, Meduza, TV Channel Dozhd, Takie Dela. SKOSH also supported some SMM work such as a Telegram channel Narcophobia.
The LSF donation has helped to embark on a new initiative to develop a comprehensive monitoring database for social work in Moscow. In 2020 the database has been piloted and by now it is established and allows to monitor routine outreach work. Several capacity building activities were co-funded through this grant, including co-funding of the study tour in Paris in 2019, Russian NGO’s participation in a conference on drug treatment in Montenegro, 7 technical assistance trips to Moscow, including 2 trips for preparation of Russia’s national grant proposal to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and a visit to Minsk, Belarus to participate in local educational activities on drug policy and health.
2019
Donor: AFEW-International
Amount: €10.000
Project goal: To develop a flexible model for defending health and human rights of people who use drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the new context of political opposition to effective HIV prevention and NGO work.
Summary outcomes: Within this project technical assistance has been provided to partner NGOs in Russia, including developing a micro-donation campaign for Andrey Rylkov Foundation, work with mass media on issues of HIV, drug policy and health, development of a brochure on Chemsex for the Russian-speaking gay community in the region of EECA. Advocacy activities focused on community mobilization and network building around the “Summer 228” activities in Russia related to a case of falsely accused journalist Ivan Golunov. In September, together with the Medecins du Monde and French NGO AIDES, Skosh co-organized a study tour of Russian NGO partners to Paris, France.
2018
Donor: AFEW-International
Amount: €30.000
Project goal: To develop a flexible model for defending health and human rights of people who use drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the new context of political opposition to effective HIV prevention and NGO work.
Summary outcomes: In 2018 the Beyond Resistance work focused on advocacy for better health and human rights on the local and international levels. Several shadow reports were prepared and presented to various UN human rights Committees in cooperation with the Russian Forum of People who use drugs. This includes report to the UN Committee against Torture, Shadow report to the UN Committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, Shadow report for the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Working Group presented at the 30th session of the UPR in Geneva. SKOSH has also provided technical assistance in preparation of 14 strategic litigation cases by Russian partners. At the International AIDS Conference AIDS 2018 in Amsterdam SKOSH has made 12 presentations during the conference and contributed to the Conference program (Conference Program Committee). Capacity building of partner NGOs remained a priority – in 2018 in cooperation with Deutsche AIDS Hilfe we organized a study tour of Russian partners to Berlin where they learned about public health work with people who use drugs and in September 2018 co-organized a Forum of Social Workers in Moscow for NGOs that provide services to marginalized communities. Together with the Panda Theater-Berlin SKOSH co-organized a discussion on drugs and feminism for Russian-speaking audience in Berlin in April 2018.
2017
Donor: AFEW-International
Amount: $39,840
Project goal: To develop a flexible model for defending health and human rights of people who use drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the new context of political opposition to effective HIV prevention and NGO work.
Summary outcomes: Within its first grant, SKOSH work mainly focused on establishing the new organization and technical assistance to organizations in Russia and Tajikistan. SKOSH successfully helped to fundraise for HIV prevention activities in Moscow, developed a web site for a partner NGO Dina in Khudjand (Tajikistan). Apart from that, SKOSH assisted in advocacy activities to several organizations: UNDP-Tajikistan (help with developing model guidance for prison program for people who use drugs and an analytical note on the legal and normative regulation of coercive drug treatment in the Republic of Tajikistan) and the Public Mechanism of Monitoring of drug policy reform in Russia (compilation of shadow reports to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1, 2, 3). SKOSH has also actively built alliances, for example by participating in the regional autumn school in Almaty, Kazakhstan for NGOs from EECA region. SKOSH has also provided technical assistance to partners in Russia and Tajikistan on increasing communication with mass media and organizations visibility for example by organizing a two weeks study tour on drug policy for a 2017 winner of the journalist competition in Russia. SKOSH also engaged in several research projects such as a survey on police harassment of people who use drugs in Russia which revealed unprecedented levels of police corruption and human rights violations that are faced by people who use drugs in Russia.