The Ministry of Justice appealed the decision of the ECHR to recognize the law on gay propaganda as discriminatory

The Ministry of Justice has appealed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to recognize the Russian law on the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” among minors as discriminatory. This was reported on the Ministry of Justice website on September 15.

The ECHR decision was made in June 2017 on a complaint by LGBT activists Nikolai Baev, Alexey Kiselyov and the founder of GayRussia.ru Nikolay Alekseev, who stated that the law violated Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Convention on the Protection of human rights. The court agreed with the applicants' arguments.

A message on the website of the Ministry of Justice states that the Russian authorities, in supporting the law, are guided by the conclusions of the Constitutional Court that the use of the term “non-traditional sexual relations” does not mean a negative assessment of these relationships and “is not aimed at belittling the honor and dignity of citizens practicing such relationships.” .

In addition, the Ministry of Justice points out that when adopting the law, the authorities were guided primarily by international legal norms, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. “The priority purpose of the relevant regulations is to protect the morals and health of children,” the statement said.

At the same time, the Ministry of Justice points out that the child’s psyche is put under pressure by “uncontrolled propaganda of any kind of sexual relations, traditional and non-traditional.” But it goes on to say that the content of propaganda of “non-traditional sexual relations” “can have a negative impact on the formation of a child’s personality, including in matters of his sexual self-identification, due to his inability to take a sufficiently critical view of the peculiarities of various types of sexual relationships between people.”

According to the decision of the ECHR, the Russian Federation must pay Bayev, Kiselev and Alekseev 49,100 euros in compensation.

Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors” is used against participants and organizers of public events dedicated to LGBT issues, and authors of publications on social networks. On September 18, a trial is scheduled to take place in Samara in the administrative case of Evdokia Romanova, who was accused of promoting “non-traditional sexual relationships among minors” for reposting publications about LGBT issues. In particular, a text from The Guardian newspaper about holding a referendum in Ireland on the legalization of same-sex marriage and an article from BuzzFeed about holding an exhibition about Russian LGBT teenagers in St. Petersburg, Meduza reports .