Professional Affiliation

PhD of Law, Independent Scholar and Lawyer

Expert Bio

Olimpiada Usanova is a lawyer and Russian human right activist. She holds a PhD in Law and has more than 15 years experience working as an assistant professor at the Universities of Russia, has many scientific publications in the field of protection of human rights. Also she works as a practice lawyer. She has been awarded fellowships from Fulbright scholar exchange program in Pennsylvania State University, Diskinson Law School, USA. Since 2018, she has become a certified tutor of the Human Right Education for Legal Professional Program of Council of Europe, specializing in Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. Now, she has been a member of the working group in NGO on the development of an interagency agreement and legal regulation measures to prevent domestic violence in Nizhny Novgorod. Since 2019, she has been a member of the Public Monitoring Commission for the Nizhny Novgorod in Civic Chamber of Russia Federation and protects the rights of prisoners against violence.

Wilson Center Project

Gender discrimination against women and domestic violence: Is the US experience applicable to Russia?

Project Summary

The title of my project is “Gender discrimination against women and domestic violence. is the US experience applicable to Russia?” The international community has long concluded that violence against women is gender discrimination. Unfortunately,  Russia has a blind spot on regulatory framework of gender discrimination. Russia no specific legislation aimed at protecting women from violence. In other words , denial of the existence of gender discrimination in Russia at the state level as well as commitment to patriarchal attitudes and practice lead to increase in violence against women and degree of cruelty.

In contrast with Russia, the first wave of feminization and protecting a women rights in the US northern states took place in the 19 th century. By now the US has made great progress in combating violence against woman-The Violence Against Woman Act of 1994 has become a turning point in the fight against domestic violence in the US and reduce the level of violence by 67 percent. And I’ve concluded that now is the time to discuss about how to prevent domestic violence and implement  the best practice of the US experience about preventing domestic violence.

I am convict that eradication of violence against woman is possible only by eliminating gender discrimination in society. To achieve this, civil society must be feminized.   Thus my current research focuses on comparing the mechanism of women struggle against gender discrimination in the US and Russia in a way of analysis of historical evolution of the feminism movement in Russia and the US.

My research include a multidisciplinary approach that combines an in-depth examination of the historical evolution of a feminism movement in Russia and the US, the best practice of overcoming gender discriminations and eliminating domestic violence in the US,  that I hope can provide us with practical tools to help reduce personal and social vulnerabilities of women in the world.