Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Fatherland, Faith and Family Policy: Parental Mobilization against Children’s Rights in Contemporary Russia

Höjdestrand, Tova LU (2015) ICCEES IX World Congress
Abstract
Policies related to family, children, and birthrates have since the mid-2000s become increasingly central to the general ideological shift toward nationalism and conservative values in Russia. A symptom of, and a response to, this development is the so-called Parents’ Movement; a rapidly proliferating grassroots mobilization in the defense of presumably traditional Russian family values against allegedly Western forms of moral degeneration. The catalyst and main target of the Movement is a current reform of the state structures of child protection in line with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. The parental opponents claim the reforms to be a conspiratorial Western attack against Russian “tradition” and its presumed core, the... (More)
Policies related to family, children, and birthrates have since the mid-2000s become increasingly central to the general ideological shift toward nationalism and conservative values in Russia. A symptom of, and a response to, this development is the so-called Parents’ Movement; a rapidly proliferating grassroots mobilization in the defense of presumably traditional Russian family values against allegedly Western forms of moral degeneration. The catalyst and main target of the Movement is a current reform of the state structures of child protection in line with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. The parental opponents claim the reforms to be a conspiratorial Western attack against Russian “tradition” and its presumed core, the family. Nonetheless the popular appeal of the Parent’s Movement also stems from a proliferated distrust in the Russian state administration, which is expected to intentionally exploit the CRC to increase corruption and authority abuse. The recent success of the Parents' Movement, this paper argues, resides in a simultaneous distrust in “Western” models of governance as well as in the Russian state bureaucracy. (Mis)representations of Western systems of child protection are used to draw up apocalyptic scenarios of a domestic future, and as the critique against Russian authorities are expressed in anti-Western terms an explicit challenge of an increasingly repressive regime is avoided. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Russia, nationalism, juvenile justice, UNCRC, child rights, Transnational treaties
conference name
ICCEES IX World Congress
conference location
Makuhari, Japan
conference dates
2015-08-03 - 2015-08-08
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
33e6cc1d-7abe-469d-b4f3-2ee09e800031 (old id 7766096)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:40:12
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:21:37
@misc{33e6cc1d-7abe-469d-b4f3-2ee09e800031,
  abstract     = {{Policies related to family, children, and birthrates have since the mid-2000s become increasingly central to the general ideological shift toward nationalism and conservative values in Russia. A symptom of, and a response to, this development is the so-called Parents’ Movement; a rapidly proliferating grassroots mobilization in the defense of presumably traditional Russian family values against allegedly Western forms of moral degeneration. The catalyst and main target of the Movement is a current reform of the state structures of child protection in line with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. The parental opponents claim the reforms to be a conspiratorial Western attack against Russian “tradition” and its presumed core, the family. Nonetheless the popular appeal of the Parent’s Movement also stems from a proliferated distrust in the Russian state administration, which is expected to intentionally exploit the CRC to increase corruption and authority abuse. The recent success of the Parents' Movement, this paper argues, resides in a simultaneous distrust in “Western” models of governance as well as in the Russian state bureaucracy. (Mis)representations of Western systems of child protection are used to draw up apocalyptic scenarios of a domestic future, and as the critique against Russian authorities are expressed in anti-Western terms an explicit challenge of an increasingly repressive regime is avoided.}},
  author       = {{Höjdestrand, Tova}},
  keywords     = {{Russia; nationalism; juvenile justice; UNCRC; child rights; Transnational treaties}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Fatherland, Faith and Family Policy: Parental Mobilization against Children’s Rights in Contemporary Russia}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/7681827/Fatherland_Faith_Family_Policy_H_jdestrand_ICCEES_2015.pdf}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}