It is important that Council of Europe members step up to fill funding gaps, as Russia has been an important contributor to the overall budget. The European Court now must not only give prompt consideration to all cases arising from the invasion of Ukraine but also to those involving relations with other neighboring countries, generally stemming from Russia’s attempts to control its so-called “breakaway territories,” including Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Donbas and elsewhere in Ukraine. Imposing arbitrary restrictions and implying that NGOs are spies and traitors, this law signaled the beginning of very hard times for Russian civil society, and the Council of Europe can no longer remain impassive when similar legislation is passed elsewhere.įinally, in 2015, Russia’s Constitutional Court then found that judgments by the Strasbourg Court could only be implemented if they conformed to the Russian Constitution, allowing the country to declare certain decisions “non-executable.” But yet again, even this challenge to the system was met with only mild criticism, no doubt bolstering others’ determination to similarly undermine the European human rights framework.Īs Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard told an audience in Kyiv on Friday, “Russia’s aggression challenges us all.” Looking at the Court’s docket, one can see the names of all major opposition figures, and Russia’s intransigence in enforcing these judgments has perhaps once more encouraged other nations such as Turkey, which also regularly detains critics to silence them.Īnother important group of cases urgently awaiting a decision from the Court has been those related to the so-called “ Foreign Agents Law” of 2012. Cases that have been linked to the Kremlin’s restrictive, and sometimes murderous, approach toward the political opposition are among the most sensitive. The political persecution of critical voices is another red line that’s been crossed for too long. They chafed even more when the Court found that gay pride could not be banned, or that laws criminalizing the “propaganda of homosexuality” violated the European Convention. They protested when the Court ruled that gender stereotypes did not justify the differential treatment of men and women regarding parental leave from the armed forces. Over the last decade, Russian authorities have also increasingly championed sexism and homophobia under the cover of “traditional values,” strongly resisting the implementation of judgments on the matter, possibly inspiring others like Azerbaijan, Hungary and Turkey in the process However, only a few of these judgements have ever been implemented, as many implicate the security forces forming one of the current regime’s main pillars. Soon after joining the Council of Europe, the country engaged in a brutal second war in Chechnya, for which the Court has since delivered hundreds of judgments against it. Russia’s engagement with the European Court has long been fraught. This is of massive significance, not only for the country’s future but for any prospect of rebuilding its legal order or cooperative relations with neighbors. And on September 16, the country will cease to be a party to the European Convention of Human Rights, meaning the European Court of Human Rights will stop reviewing any Russian cases related to events that take place after that date. On March 16, the Council of Europe expelled Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
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