A/HRC/4/19/Add.3 page 8 the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the abolition of the death penalty, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Russia is also signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. 10. The 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes the principle of equality before the law, determines the State’s responsibility in guaranteeing the equality of rights and liberties regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, property or employment status, residence, attitude to religion, convictions, membership of public associations or any other circumstance (art. 19) and recognizes the right to freedom of religious worship (art. 28). It also establishes that foreign citizens and stateless persons shall enjoy the rights of the citizens of the Russian Federation and bear their duties, with the exception of cases stipulated by the Federal law or international treaties (art. 62). 11. Issues of citizenship and legal status of foreigners in the Russian Federation are regulated by specific laws, in particular, the 2002 federal laws on Russian Citizenship - which replaced the Law on Citizenship of the Russian Federation of 1991 - and on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation - which replaced the Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens of the Soviet Union of 1981. D. The political and administrative structure 12. The Russian Federation is a federal presidential republic. The Russian President is the head of State and of a pluriform multiparty system, with executive power exercised by the Government, headed by a Prime Minister appointed by the President with the Parliament’s approval. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation: the Federation Council, with the authority to review and force compromise on legislation, and the State Duma, with the role of primary consideration of all legislation. The judiciary branch is a three court level system, with a Supreme Court as the highest court of appeal, a Constitutional Court with the power to decide on the constitutionality of laws and the conflicts of competence among State bodies, and the Superior Court for Arbitration. 13. The Russian Federation is administratively divided into 88 federal subjects, 21 republics, 48 provinces (oblasts), 7 territories (krais), 9 autonomous districts (okrugs), 1 autonomous oblast, 2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and 7 large federal districts. All of those entities have a multi-ethnic composition. E. Methodology 14. The Special Rapporteur addressed the three following main questions to all his interlocutors: (1) Is there racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the Russian Federation? (2) If this is the case, which are their manifestations and expressions? (3) What are the governmental policies and programmes to fight these phenomena at the political, legal and cultural levels? In the following sections, the Special Rapporteur exposes the