ON CIVIL DEFENCE
P. S. Zolotarev
Amongst the legal acts governing the activity of national security, the Law ‘On Civil
Defence’ occupies an important place. It defines the forces and means, content and
tasks of civil defence in the Russian Federation. It establishes its legal grounds and
defines the powers of State authorities and bodies and local governmental bodies
and organizations regardless of their organizational-legal forms or forms of property.
The necessity of this Law was dictated by changes in the governmental bodies’
structure, by the forming of the market economy and under the force of democratic
transformation. On one level, the Law intended to make this sphere of activity open
to Russian citizens and accessible for civil control. On another, it brought the Law
into conformity with the principles and regulations generally recognized by the world
community. It states that if an international treaty signed by the Russian Federation
establishes rules other than those envisaged by the present federal law, then the
rules of the international treaty apply. Military persons from the civil defence sector
are issued with the international differential signs of civil defence.
The basic direction of the Law is defined by the content of civil defence, which is
understood as the system of measures of preparation for the defence and protection
of the population as well as the material and cultural values of the Russian
Federation against hazards associated with the prosecution of hostilities or as a
consequence of hostilities. There is no need to prove the humanitarian nature of
measures which correspond to norms of international humanitarian law and to the
democratic framework of defence construction and protection of individual, society
and State security.
At the same time, the Law predominantly reflects approaches to the arrangement of
civil defence applicable to a large-scale war. The notion of civil defence itself is rather
rigidly tied to the status of war. “Conduct of the civil defence in the territory of the
Russian Federation or in its individual localities”, says the Law, “shall start from the
moment of declaration of the status of war, the actual start of hostilities, or the
introduction by the President of the Russian Federation of martial law in the territory
of the Russian Federation or in its individual localities”. Many peculiarities, which may
be inherent in the arrangement of civil defence in local conditions, including internal
armed conflicts, remain lost. Meanwhile, the Law admits use of civil defence troops
not only in the course of the prosecution of war, but also during periods of natural
disaster, catastrophe and demolition operations.
The Law fails to stipulate conditions concerning the protection of individual rights in
the accomplishment of civil defence tasks. However, the duties and rights of citizens
have been defined. The matter of admissibility of the absolute priority of the rights of
the State over the rights of the individual is disputable under these conditions. An
approach which admits infringement of individual rights in the realization of civil
defence functions by management bodies and organizations contradicts the Law ‘On
Security’, which provides the absolute priority of individual rights over the interests of
the State.
As for the principles of arrangement and performance of civil defence, the Law
accounts for the peculiarities connected with the transition to the market economy.
The organizations in this domain have been defined regardless of their forms of
property. This approach, in relation to enterprises and hazardous production, is
justified. The Law obliges them to create civil defence organizations, stipulating the
possibility of compensation of their costs on conducting civil defence activities.
On the whole, the Law ‘On Civil Defence’ legislatively fixes a quite proportional
hierarchical structure of the total system of civil defence, preserving all the rich
experience of its arrangement accumulated in the Soviet Union. It accounts for the
basic peculiarities connected with the performance of economic reforms and
democratic transformations in the country.
Taking into account the fact that within the limits of transformation of the military
organization of the country there are planned considerable changes in optimization of
all structures connected with the conduct of rescue actions and activities in the
elimination of emergency consequences. One should also expect the introduction of
amendments to the Law ‘On Civil Defence’. At this stage, it will be feasible to
eliminate the drawbacks pertinent to it