The ECHR refused to recognize discrimination in Russian legislation on “foreign agents”

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights refused to allow Russian NGOs to review the ruling in the “foreign agency” case. This was reported by the Public Verdict Foundation.

In June, the ECHR issued a ruling on a complaint from 73 Russian NGOs, in which it found that recognizing them as “foreign agents” violates the right to freedom of association (Article 11 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). The court awarded compensation to each of the organizations, noting only the poor quality of the law and the disproportionate sanctions for its violation.

At the same time, in its June ruling, the ECHR refused to consider the issue of violation of Articles 14 and 18 of the Convention (discrimination and politically motivated legislation). Because of this, some of the applicants appealed to the Grand Chamber of the Court with a request to reconsider the case.

OVD-Info lawyer Violetta Fitzner notes that the appealing organizations expected that an appeal in the Grand Chamber would lead to recognition of the assignment of “foreign agent” status as a politically motivated and discriminatory decision. However, they were denied reconsideration without explanation.

“Thus, on October 10, the ruling in the case of Ecodefense and Others v. Russia became final and entered into force. However, it is unfortunate that this ruling will still not be implemented, since the Russian Federation has decided not to implement court orders issued after March 15,” she added.