Law abolishing freedom of assembly

After the State Duma adopted openly reactionary amendments to Federal Law No. 54 “On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions and pickets” at the beginning of this summer, increasing fines for participation in actions not coordinated with the administration by hundreds of times, it might seem that further tightening legislation on holding public events is nowhere to be found. However, Chelyabinsk regional parliamentarians have proven by their own example that they are always ready to find ways to make life even more difficult for the South Urals.

According to the new regional bill, designed to effectively put an end to freedom of assembly in the Chelyabinsk region, a ban is introduced on holding rallies, demonstrations, processions and pickets in places located closer than 50 meters from social facilities (schools, hospitals, sports institutions, etc.) , as well as on the territory of the owner - an individual or legal entity, if the owner did not give written consent to hold a public event. Considering that in any large city there are, if not schools and hospitals, then private property, the bill actually pushes public events to the city outskirts, if not beyond the city limits.

The bill also proposes to establish a list of places for holding public events, the procedure for their use, occupancy standards and the maximum number of participants in the actions. There will be no gathering of more than one person per square meter in an open area. This means that at those venues that could easily accommodate 1,000 or more people, it will be impossible to coordinate an event with more than 250-300 participants.

In addition, according to the new rules, when submitting a notification, the organizer of a public event will be required to provide a certificate confirming that he does not have an unexpunged or unexpunged criminal record or that he has been brought to administrative responsibility. What is this if not a presumption of guilt of the notifier?

Along with all of the above, without a doubt, the already existing practice of refusals by the Chelyabinsk city administration to approve the holding of public events due to the “occupancy” of the place by “another applicant” will continue.

Thus, as far as one can judge, after the adoption of this bill in the Chelyabinsk region, the notification nature of holding public events will be completely eliminated. In fact, by canceling Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of assembly, it becomes permissive and prohibitive: city and regional officials have the opportunity, without going beyond the law, to refuse to approve ANY public action they do not like on formal grounds.

On the morning of November 29, during the consideration of the bill in the second reading, an action against its adoption took place in front of the building of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region. Representatives of Solidarity, Left Front, RPR-Parnas and Democratic Choice parties, and non-party civil activists took part in the picket. The protesters held posters with calls to respect the Constitution and not to adopt the law on rallies in its current version.

In addition, taking advantage of the right granted to political parties by the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region, the regional branch of RPR-Parnas sent its representative, lawyer Vasily Moskovets, to a meeting of the Legislative Assembly of the region in order to express the party’s position on the issue under consideration. Nevertheless, the bill, with the support of the United Russia party faction in the ZSO, known for its attitude towards any manifestations of civic activity, was adopted.