On May 14 and 16, the European Court of Human Rights awarded compensation for 240 complaints about violations of the rights of participants in public events and assemblies, filed by lawyers from the Memorial Human Rights Center and OVD-Info.
The amount of compensation ranged from 3,500 to 5,000 euros.
The applicants included participants in the rallies in support of Alexei Navalny in 2021, the rally against mandatory vaccination on June 26, 2021, the rally on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow on September 20, 2021 after the elections to the State Duma, anti-war rallies in February and March 2022, as well as participants in the Municipal Russia forum of the United Democrats project in Moscow on March 13, 2021.
The ECHR recognized the violation of the rights of the Russian state to:
— freedom of assembly (Article 11 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms);
— freedom of speech (Article 10 of the Convention);
- personal inviolability (Article 5 of the Convention);
- a fair trial (Article 6 of the Convention);
- respect for private and family life (Article 8 of the Convention) - these cases concerned detentions following recognition by cameras;
— prompt review of the decision to arrest (Article 2 of Protocol 7 to the Convention).
- On 11 June 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the Russian government not to implement ECHR decisions made after 15 March 2022, the day Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe. However, the Court will continue to consider complaints about violations by the Russian authorities that occurred before 14 September 2022.