Rights defenders treat law on ignoring ECtHR’s decisions as unconstitutional

The law signed by Russia's president a that allows the Constitutional Court (CC) to recognize decisions of international courts unenforceable is dangerous and violates citizens’ rights, believe Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and Olga Gnezdilova, an activist of the project named "Stitching Russian Justice Initiative".

On December 14, Vladimir Putin signed a law amending the Federal Law "On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation”, which now allows the CC to recognize unenforceable decisions of international courts, and, in the first place, of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), if they contravene the Russian Constitution.

According to Olga Gnezdilova, who is representing the project "Stitching Russian Justice Initiative” (SRJI), the law allows the CC "to decide whether to enforce the ECtHR’s judgements or not without holding a hearing," which “in itself violates a citizen’s human rights because he is unable to defend his position".

Lyudmila Alexeyeva has declared "the dependence of the CC from the executive power." She added that Russia "has violated its own Constitution."

The lawyer Dmitry Agranovskiy asserts that the new law does not cancel the supremacy of the international law in the country.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.