European rights court rules Russia violated freedom of assembly and expression News
CherryX per Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
European rights court rules Russia violated freedom of assembly and expression

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Russia had violated an citizens’ right to freedom of assembly and free speech on Tuesday.

The applicants in the case were subject to administrative sanctions for violating the Public Events Act. Russian courts convicted all parties for holding public events without prior approval from municipal authorities.

The central legal issue was whether the impugned act was permissible under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Articles 1o and 11 guarantee the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly respectively. Any restrictions on the rights must be prescribed by law, serve a legitimate aim and be necessary in a democratic society.

In the first application, Olga Ivanovna Dianova, a member of the Public Monitoring Commission of the Sverdlovsk Region, witnessed violence committed by prison authorities. Together with a colleague, Dianova organized a hunger strike to demand an independent inquiry into allegations of ill-treatment at the special-regime correctional colony IK-63.

The court found that classifying hunger strikes as “static demonstrations” is overly broad and failed the “lawfulness” requirement under Article 11. Since hunger strikes inherently involve overnight protest, the court determined that the general ban on overnight public events entirely prohibited the possibility of organizing such protests. As a result, the court concluded that the term “static demonstration” was too vague for Dianova to have reasonably foreseen the legal consequences of initiating a hunger strike without prior approval.

The court also ruled that the criminal sanction was imposed “purely on formal grounds” and was not necessary in a democratic society. First, the court noted that the hunger strike had not exceeded the level of minor disturbance, nor did it become violent. The court further emphasized that protesting against the use of torture in Russian penal facilities warranted privileged protection under the ECHR.

The second complaint involved four applicants who wanted to create a satirical film in a public park. In the film, one of the actors impersonated Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the others professed their love for Putin and held posters with absurd slogans.

The court again found that the Public Events Act failed to satisfy Article 10’s “lawfulness” requirement. It ruled that the primary purpose of filmmaking is the creation of content, which differs from mass gatherings intended for public expression on issues of public concern. Applying notification requirements to the applicant’s activity created a prior restraint incompatible with freedom of expression. The court also opined that the broad definition of a “meeting” in the Public Events Act was so expansive that it made anticipating how the law would apply impossible, further failing the “lawfulness” requirement.

The international community has consistently condemned Russia for failing to protect freedom of assembly and for not fulfilling its obligations under international covenants. In August 2021, Amnesty International’s Russia Researcher Oleg Kozlovsky raised alarm over the increasing use of “prior notification” procedures to restrict public assemblies, as well as the growing number of burdensome requirements and intensified criminal penalties. In July 2022, UN human rights experts also criticized Russia’s use of “foreign agents” laws to suppress freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly.

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