Ban on LGBT actions in Volzhsky appealed against at the ECtHR

The prohibition of the gay parade and two LGBT pickets, scheduled in the city of Volzhsky, Volgograd Region, for August 2018, has been appealed against at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today, Nikolai Alekseev, an LGBT movement activist, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to Alekseev, the Volzhsky Mayoralty refused to sanction the actions "exclusively with reference to the Federal Law on prohibition of gay propaganda." According to Nikolai, the arguments in the complaint to the ECtHR are standard – a violation of three articles of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) – of Articles 11, 13 and 14 (the freedom of assembly and association, the right to an effective remedy and the prohibition of discrimination).

"Volzhsky is the 248th city, the prohibition of public LGBT actions in which has been challenged at the ECtHR. In total, as of today, the campaign for the freedom of assembly of LGBT people covers 354 cities of Russia in 81 out of 85 subjects of the Russian Federation. On November 27, 2018, in the case "Alekseev et al vs. Russia", the ECtHR found the prohibitions of gay parades and other public actions of the LGBT community in Russian cities contradicting the ECHR. The ECtHR's resolution came into force on May 6, 2019," Mr Alexeev wrote in his page on the "VKontakte" social network.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 3, 2019 at 10:00 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.