The ECHR admitted that the law on "foreign agents" violates human rights

The European Court of Human Rights recognized that the law on foreign agents violates human rights. The ECHR ordered the Russian authorities to pay 10 thousand euros each applicant.

73 Russian non -profit organizations filed a lawsuit with a lawsuit. “9 years later, finally, the ECHR was decided: the law on foreign agents and its application contradict the European Convention on Human Rights,” Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group. “The European Court established a violation of freedom of associations. Application of the concept of“ Foreign agent ”was recognized as unreasonable.”

"Agora" was one of the lawyers in this case, its lawyers represented the interests of more than 20 organizations in the ECHR.

The European Court completely agreed with the applicants that the law on foreign agents is unpredictable and prevents the lawful work of civil society. In addition, the court recognized fines under the law on foreign agents excessive.

During the expectation of this decision of the ECHR, over half of the applicant organizations were liquidated.

“The decision will become final after 3 months, if the parties do not appeal it to the Great Chamber. All the final decisions of the ECHR are required for the respondents, they have no right to choose which to execute and which are not,” said the head of the international practice of Agora, Kirill Koroteev.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has already stated that Russia does not intend to comply with the decision to pay compensation to foreign agents, referring to the decree of Vladimir Putin on the failure to fulfill the decisions of the ECHR, made after March 15, 2022.

At the same time, the director and chief lawyer of the media protection center Galina Arapova believes that even in the context of the Russian Federation refusal to enforce the ECHR decisions, today's decision of the European Court is extremely important.

“Let Russia not fulfill it right now, the country is now undergraving, which is obvious, but justice does not have a statute of limitations and finally made a decision made by particularly valuable balance and important formulated principles,” Arapova said. “All this will come in handy to protect journalists and media recognized by foreign agents over the past year.”

• On June 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill adopted earlier by the State Duma on non -fulfillment of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights issued after March 15, 2022. Compensation for the decision of the ECHR, made before March 15, Russia will pay only in rubles to Russian accounts.
• The Russian deputies explained this decision by the exception of Russia from the Council of Europe in March this year due to the invasion of Ukraine (Russia itself announced its withdrawal from the organization). Two months after its exclusion from the European Council, Russia "saved" almost 1.5 million euros of payments on the decisions of the ECHR, which entered into force on March 16 (the release date of Russia from CE). This is the total amount of 56 final decisions of the Strasbourg Court, and three settlement agreements have also entered into force during this period.
• The legislation on "foreign agents" in Russia appeared in 2012. The law allowed the Ministry of Justice to recognize non-profit organizations by “foreign agents” if they receive financing from abroad and are engaged in “political activities”. The criteria for which such activities are determined are not clearly defined in the law, which allows the authorities to persecute organizations working in the field of education, culture, healthcare, ecology, and human rights protection.
• The Russian Ministry of Justice is conducting four lists of foreign agents at once, adding to them NPOs, journalists and public figures, who, according to the government, receive foreign financing and conduct political activities.
• The State Duma in April 2022 developed a new bill on "foreign agents". He will have to unite the currently existing registers of "foreign agents" (four of them) into one. If the law accepts that this will allow the authorities to assign the status of a “foreign agent” without financing from abroad, and subject to “support or foreign influence”.