The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a judgment on Tuesday, ruling that Russia violated the right to free elections under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) by preventing an opposition politician from running in the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly.
While Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg, who represents the social-liberal Yabloko party, was approved to run in the 2021 State Duma elections, a rival candidate from the Green Party filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court to seek his disqualification shortly after his candidacy was confirmed. The lawsuit argued that Shlosberg’s involvement with an organization that supported Alexei Navalny-related protests and his active peaceful support thereof warranted his exclusion.
In response to the lawsuit, the Moscow City Court labeled Shlosberg’s “Navalny Headquarters” organization as “extremist” and disqualified him from the State Duma elections, due to Shlosberg’s association with the organization. At the time of his disqualification, Shlosberg condemned the court’s ruling as “illegal and unjustified, [and] essentially lacking in legal basis.”
In June 2022, Shlosberg filed an application with the ECHR, contending that his disqualification from the elections violated the right to free elections as protected by the Convention. Although Russia is not a party to the Convention due to its invasion of Ukraine and consequential exclusion from the Council of Europe, the court maintains its authority to address all applications and case files before Russia’s exclusion on September 16, 2022. Currently, 17,450 applications against Russia are pending before the ECtHR and 2,129 decisions have not been fully implemented.
In its judgment, the court unanimously determined that the right to free elections, as outlined in Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 Convention, had been violated. Additionally, the court reaffirmed that freedom of peaceful assembly is a fundamental right under Article 11 of the Convention, as confirmed in a previous ruling earlier this year. The court found that “exercising the Convention right to peaceful assembly could not constitute a ground for any form of sanction, including disqualification from standing for Parliament.”
Russia has been directed to pay €5,000 (approximately $5,522) for non-pecuniary damages and an additional €7,500 (approximately $8,283) to cover legal costs and expenses.
