Union of the committees of mothers of soldiers of Russia

The Union of the committees of mothers of soldiers of Russia (in Russian СоюзкомитетовсолдатскихматерейРоссии) is a Russian ONG which acts for the defense of the human rights within the Russian armed . It was created in 1989 under the name of Comité of the mothers of soldiers of Russia (КомитетсолдатскихматерейРоссии), and constitutes today one of the main organizations of the civil society in Russia.

Its current general secretary is Valentina Melnikova.

Their role is to help the young people who are called with the military service and their family to make known to them their rights and to make them respect. Another objective of the committee is of professionnaliser the army, to make so that the soldiers do not have any more weapons in the hands without to have had a formation as a preliminary. It is important to protect the young people suffering from pathologies and which are called with the military service. In Russia, there exists a decree taking again the list of the diseases incompatible with the army but the decrees are not accessible to the population. The Russian mothers of soldiers obtained it against a vodka bottle. They studied it, expressed so that it is applied, they also contacted army medical officers and little by little the law was applied but not everywhere, they have nevertheless a means of pressure on the soldiers. It is not rare that young people flee the army because they are maltreated there, they is then regarded as deserters and risks sorrows of imprisonment. Before the creation of the committee the fugitive ones were to live in clandestinity. The committee invites them to come to permanences in order to examine their file and to obtain a demobilization or an assignment in another barracks. It was current for the members of the committee to accommodate young people in their residence but the request intensified and it was a taking risk for them and their families. Initially they obtained an agreement with the army, the fugitive young people presenting itself to permanences would be elsewhere affected. Then, a military gathering point was creates, the fugitive ones go there and their file is examined by the army. It took time so that the committee grants its confidence to the soldiers in function, entent to them is good, the soldiers are well treated there, it is what counts for the mothers of the Russian soldiers.

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