3 December 2020
Russian human rights activists have sent an appeal to the Ministry of Justice urging it not to prosecute participants of peaceful rallies that do not have prior permission from the authorities. This includes prosecutions under the ‘Dadin Article’. Team 29 also signed the letter. Here we publish its full text.
Source: Team 29
Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation
To the RF representative at the European Court of Human Rights
M.L. Galperin
Zhitnaya Street 14
Moscow, 119991
Dear Mikhail Lvovich!
For a long time, our organizations have been involved in the protection of the right to freedom of assembly in Russia. We have extensive experience in providing both individual legal assistance to claimants and in developing systemic proposals to improve the situation within the country. Our organizations pay special attention to the issue of implementing judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
On 3 September 2020, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers issued a decision with an assessment of the progress made by the Russian authorities in the implementation of an ECtHR judgments in the the case of Lashmankin and Others v. Russia and concerned the systemic problems that exist within Russia with respect to the right to freedom of assembly. The Committee of Ministers noted a number of positive aspects, however, it also found that at the present moment, this judgment had not been fully implemented by the Russian authorities. The Committee of Ministers noted that violations of the right to freedom of assembly continue to occur regularly in Russia. In particular, massive violations took place in Moscow in the summer of 2019. The Committee of Ministers found that the implementation of the ECtHR judgment pertaining to the Lashmankin case requires the adoption of systemic measures. Such measures may include — among others — legislative reform as well as improvements to judicial practice.
The specific recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers are:
— limit the ability of regional authorities to influence the organization of rallies and oblige them to assess the proportionality of their decisions;
— abandon the practice of prosecuting people for participating in peaceful rallies, even if these rallies were not coordinated with the authorities. Fines (if they are sustained) should be proportionate (they are currently disproportionate);
— abandon the practice of recognizing several single pickets as separate events requiring approval;
— improve judicial practice in this area, ensure that the courts consider complaints pertaining to unapproved rallies before the date that they are scheduled to be held and make decisions in accordance with the right to freedom of assembly;
— the need for the authorities to send a message to the public that reflects a tolerant attitude towards public assemblies and to present statistical information to the Committee of Ministers that demonstrates such tolerance in their decisions.
The Committee of Ministers decided that they will reconsider the matter of the Russian authorities’ implementation of the ECtHR judgment in the Lashmankin case no later than June 2021. The Russian authorities are encouraged to provide the Committee with information on further progress in this area.
In this regard, we propose that the Russian Ministry of Justice initiate an expert discussion on possible actions that the Russian authorities can take with the aim of improving the situation in Russia with respect to freedom of assembly. We believe that representatives of various departments in Russia, representatives of civil society organizations and civil initiatives working on this topic, as well as other experts, lawyers and advocates, should jointly participate in this discussion. Representatives of our organizations are ready to take part in it as well. We believe that to this end it will be useful to create an expert group under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice.
We believe that, first of all, it would be useful to discuss the possibility for the Russian authorities to take the following measures:
- completely decriminalise participation in peaceful rallies, even those that are not authorised by the authorities, and repeal the legislative provisions allowing criminal prosecution for repeated participation in unauthorised public events;
- exclude the possibility of imposing administrative jail sentences for participation in unauthorised public events and drastically reduce administrative fines;
- exclude the possibility of recognising a series of single-person pickets as one protest and the possibility of recognising a queue for a picket as a public assembly; not extend restrictions, which by their nature are intended for mass public assemblies, to single-person pickets; not extend restrictions intended for organisers of public events to single-person picketers;
- exclude the possibility of recognising a series of single-person pickets as one protest and the possibility of recognising a queue for a picket as a public assembly; not extend restrictions, which by their nature are intended for mass public assemblies, to single-person pickets; not extend restrictions intended for organisers of public events to single-person picketers;
- improve the authorisation procedures for public events in Russia, narrow down the possibilities for the authorities to refuse authorisations, and lift unjustified federal and regional bans on holding public events in certain areas (for example, on Red Square, near court buildings, etc.); publish official statistics with the number of notifications on the holding of protests and the number of protests authorised and not authorised by the authorities; exclude the possibility of declaring a protest unauthorised on the sole basis that the deadline for filing the notification is missed;
- expand the list of situations in which public events can take place without the authorisation by the authorities, introduce the concept of “spontaneous public event” into the legislation and provide for the possibility of holding spontaneous protests without the authorisation; enshrine in law the possibility of holding public events with a small number of participants, not involving road closures and other serious changes in the functioning of the city or town, without authorisation.
We believe that it will be useful for the Russian authorities to also familiarise themselves with other civil society proposals. In particular, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recently sent to the RF Ministry of Justice detailed proposals by Memorial Human Rights Centre and OVD-Info made under Rule 9.2 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers. We attach to this appeal the translation of these proposals into Russian. We look forward to a constructive dialogue with the Russian authorities on the possible implementation of these and other proposals aimed at systematically improving the situation with freedom of assembly in Russia.
Due to the above,
WE REQUEST YOU TO:
1. Bring to the attention of the key RF departments information about our organisations’ proposals regarding the adoption of general measures to execute the European Court of Human Rights judgment in Lashmankin case. Take these proposals into account when implementing Russia’s policy on freedom of assembly and preparing a future report of the Russian authorities to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
2. Create an expert group within the Ministry of Justice to discuss proposals on general measures aimed at ensuring the full realisation of the right to freedom of assembly in Russia.
3. Include representatives of our organisations in the abovementioned expert group
Appendix — Russian translation of the report by Memorial Human Rights Centre and OVD-Info, submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe under Rule 9.2 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers.
Signatories:
Anna Dobrovolskaya, Executive Director of Memorial Human Rights Centre
Leonid Drabkin, Coordinator of OVD-Info
Aleksei Glukhov, Head of Apology of Protest
Maksim Olenichev, Senior Lawyer of Team 29
Svetlana Astrakhantseva, Executive Director of the Moscow Helsinki Group
Natalia Taubina, Director of the Public Verdict Foundation
Andrei Petrov, Executive Director of the Moscow LGBT Initiative Group Stimul
Olga Sidorovich, Director of the Institute of Law and Public Policy
Aleksei Pryanishnikov, Coordinator of Open Russia’s human rights project (“Pravozaschita Otkrytki”)
Galina Arapova, Director of the Mass Media Defence Centre
Natalia Zvyagina, Director of Amnesty International’s Representative Office in Russia
Translated by Tyler Langendorfer and Anastasia Kovalevskaya
