Human rights activists appealed to the Commissioner for Human Rights and the State Duma regarding freedom of assembly

Representatives of OVD-Info, “Memorial”, “Public Verdict” and the Moscow Helsinki Group to the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Tatyana Moskalkova and to parliamentary factions (, , , ) with a call to help resolve systemic problems with freedom of assembly in Russia, identified in the resolutions ECtHR.

addressed by United Russia Communist Party of the Russian Federation Liberal Democratic Party A Just Russia In an appeal to the factions of the State Duma, human rights activists asked to abandon the tightening of the legislation on rallies and to bring this legislation into line with the practice of the ECHR. In an appeal to the Commissioner for Human Rights, they ask her to draw the attention of the authorities to the problem of restricting freedom of assembly and to appeal to the President of the Russian Federation with a request not to sign the recently adopted bills tightening the procedure for holding rallies.

Human rights activists also recalled that they had previously submitted a similar appeal to the Ministry of Justice, in which they made specific proposals to change the situation in the country, based on the ECHR ruling “Lashmankin and others against Russia” and other court practice. In particular, it was then proposed:

directed - to completely decriminalize participation in peaceful rallies, even those not coordinated with the authorities; - expand the list of situations in which public events can take place without approval from the authorities; - improve approval procedures for public events; - legislate the possibility of holding public events with a small number of participants without approval; - introduce into legislation the concept of “spontaneous public event” and establish the possibility of holding spontaneous events without approval from the authorities; - eliminate the possibility of imposing administrative arrest for participation in unapproved public events and radically reduce administrative fines; - exclude the possibility of recognizing a series of single pickets as a single action and the possibility of recognizing a queue for a picket as a multiple action; Later, human rights activists received from the Ministry of Justice, which states that the execution of the ECHR ruling in the case “Lashmankin and others v. Russia” is under constant control of the Ministry of Justice. However, officials did not comment on specific proposals from organizations.

answer At the same time, the State Duma adopted bills that tightened the procedure for holding rallies in Russia and aggravated the problems identified by the ECHR.

• On December 3, 11 human rights organizations involved in helping those detained at public events submitted to the Russian Ministry of Justice with specific proposals to improve the situation with the implementation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, as well as the implementation of relevant decisions of the ECHR. appealed - on September 3, 2020, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe did not implement the ECHR ruling in the case “Lashmankin and others v. Russia” - one of the key cases on the issues of refusal to approve actions and mass detentions of participants in peaceful assemblies in Russia. The Committee of Ministers intends to return to the discussion of the issue of implementation by the Russian authorities of this ECHR ruling in June 2021. admitted - At the end of November 2020, a deputy from the United Russia party, Dmitry Vyatkin, submitted several bills to the State Duma for consideration, which, on the contrary, imply additional restrictions in the field of freedom of assembly and create new difficulties and risks for the organizers, participants of the actions and journalists covering them. On December 23, State Duma deputies held their third reading. introduced approved