Not only the European Court: how appeals to the UN affect freedom of assembly

It seems that the only way to see a fair trial is to file a complaint with the ECtHR. Actually, it is not. OVD-Info tells how the United Nations works on the issue of freedom of assembly.

Protection of rights at the international level

This summer there were more than 3,000 arrests in Moscow. Most often, all the detainees had a similar scenario: a paddy wagon, a police station, a court, an appeal. Filing complaints with a Russian court is called the national stage, but this is not the only way to protect your rights.

At the international level, there is the European Court of Human Rights - as part of the Council of Europe. Russia has signed and adopted the European Convention on Human Rights, so the actions of the Russian authorities can be filed with the ECtHR.

Also, within the framework of the Council of Europe, there is a Commissioner for Human Rights, to whom you can describe some situations and submit applications. In this case, there is no formalized procedure - it is worth contacting in case of some high-profile cases and systemic violations. There will be a reaction in hot pursuit and diplomatic pressure on the state.

In addition to it, you can contact the United Nations - the Human Rights Committee at the UN . There you can file a complaint, as in the ECtHR. The Committee monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty (the list of articles is similar to the European Convention on Human Rights ). In particular, there is an article on freedom of assembly.

“It’s important: you can’t file a complaint with the ECtHR and the UN at the same time, so as not to overload the international justice system with the simultaneous consideration of one case,” notes Tatyana Chernikova, lawyer at the Memorial Human Rights Center. - If the ECtHR refuses to consider your complaint, you can send the complaint to the UN. The differences are that the ECtHR is a regional, European level, but it has a higher status than an international, but recommendatory UN decision.”

In addition to the Committee, the UN has special rapporteurs who work on a single topic, issue or country. In particular, there is a special rapporteur on freedom of assembly. He summarizes all the information received and makes some decisions on how the law is applied in a particular country. You can also send individual complaints to him, but he decides what information to use.

UN system on freedom of assembly:

• treaty bodies, which includes the Human Rights Committee (HRC);
• bodies within the Human Rights Council;
• Special Rapporteur on freedom of assembly (reports to the Human Rights Council, but is not subordinate to it).

How the UN freedom of assembly system works

Last year, the UN Human Rights Committee invited national human rights institutions, civil society, academia and international organizations to provide information on freedom of assembly in their regions.

Some of the reports that were sent to the Committee were read and analyzed by a lawyer and OVD-Info volunteer Elizaveta Dobroradnykh. Several types of restrictions on freedom of assembly can be seen in the documents.

For example, the Danish humanitarian non-governmental organization DanChurchAid reports on the abuse of anti-terrorism legislation and the restriction of peaceful gatherings. And Hong Kong NGOs write about the ban on the use of flags and the reclassification of participation in an illegal assembly (not approved by the authorities) into an “uprising” and bringing participants to criminal liability for up to 7 years in prison.

The Committee is also informed about the practice of regulating freedom of assembly. an international organization The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, , says that a ban on holding meetings in certain places or at certain times cannot be considered a proportional measure for other public interests. The international network of civil liberties organizations INCLO believes that the unwarranted use of personal identification tools should be prohibited. Records made by the police must be public and comply with data privacy laws.

Last year, the lawyers of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" and OVD-Info also prepared and submitted General Comments on Article 21 ("Right to Peaceful Assembly") of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Expected results

The UN Human Rights Committee has studied all the reports from different countries that it received last year. After that, the HRC developed a preliminary draft of a future compendium of international law on freedom of assembly and invited everyone to send their comments, observations and additions to this particular text.

After the publication of the first draft document, general comments could be sent. Based on the results of the new edits, which could be expressed by the states, the UN will release the text. It will define freedom of assembly, how states should apply it, how it can be restricted. Lawyers from OVD-Info and Memorial HRC sent their comments on this document. This text will be advisory in nature, but its importance lies in the fact that it will summarize all the norms of international law relating to freedom of assembly. The proposals of HRC "Memorial" and OVD-Info can be read on the website of the Human Rights Committee .