The Russian Supreme Court [official website, in Russian] on Monday upheld its ruling ordering the disbanding of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In denying an appeal by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Supreme Court affirmed [TASS report] that their previous ruling will remain in place and unchanged. The prior ruling was considered the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be an extremist organization because it distributed pamphlets that promoted hatred of other denominations, such as the Russian Orthodox Church. The order for disbanding took place immediately and calls for all 395 branches of the religion to shut down and the forfeiture of their properties to the government. After having their appeal denied, the Jehovah’s Witnesses plan to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights [official website].

Russia’s human rights and religious freedom record has been the subject of widespread international criticism. On April 20 the Russian Supreme Court issued its initial ruling [JURIST report] ordering the disbanding of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In February the Russian Supreme Court annulled the 2.5 year prison sentence of Ildar Dadin, who was the first person to be convicted under a relatively new anti-protest law [JURIST report]. Earlier in February the European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay more than 63,000 euros for arresting Alexander Navalny multiple times [JURIST report] between March 2012 and February 2014. The court held that Russia repeatedly and unjustifiably violated Navalny’s right to freedom of peaceful assembly under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In January the US sanctioned [JURIST report] five Russian officials for human rights abuses in association with the death of a lawyer in prison. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced [JURIST report] in November that Russia would leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), expressing disdain over the ICC’s investigation into potential human rights abuses by Russian forces in South Ossetia in 2008. In May 2015 Russian President Vladmir Putin signed a law [JURIST report] that allows for foreign “undesirable” NGOs or firms to be sanctioned and banned from operating in the country, drawing criticism from human rights groups.