Russian authorities did not protect their LGBT citizens from homophobic attacks – Kommersant

On September 12, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) published a ruling on a joint complaint by representatives of the Russian LGBT community. The judges concluded that Russian police failed to protect Russians from “homophobic acts of violence.”

Thus, St. Petersburg resident Boris Romanov faced discrimination on May 17, 2012 at the “Rainbow Flash Mob” – the ECHR emphasizes that the action was coordinated with the local authorities. Police maintained public order but “did not intervene when counter-demonstrators began to insult the event participants.” Residents of Voronezh Pavel Lebedev and Andrei Nasonov were injured on January 20, 2013 at a picket coordinated with the authorities against the law banning “LGBT propaganda.” The day before, the far-right organization Separate Division called for disrupting the event. Six people took part in the picket, and they were beaten by the ultra-right in front of the police. Sergey Starov, Anna Pitenova, Kirill Fedorov (included in the register of foreign agents), Evgeny Prokopenko and Svetlana Levina were injured on October 12, 2013 at a rally in honor of International Coming Out Day in St. Petersburg: “The applicants arrived at the demonstration site early and saw a group of counter-demonstrators . The latter shouted homophobic slogans, pushed the applicants and prevented them from proceeding to the venue. The police did not intervene,” the resolution says. The ECHR also mentioned the incident with Dmitry Chechetkin, who on November 3, 2013 attended a weekly event in support of LGBT people at an HIV prevention center in St. Petersburg: “Two young men in hoods, armed with a baseball bat and an air pistol, entered the center. As soon as the applicant turned his head in their direction, one of the attackers shot him in the left eye.” Two more applicants, Severi Gromadskaya and Anton Martin, were beaten on October 14, 2017 in one of the bars in St. Petersburg: “An unknown man noticed a rainbow bracelet on their friend’s hand and approached them. He insulted them, referring to their alleged homosexuality, and beat them, causing several bruises.” In both cases, the police did not make enough efforts to find the culprits, the ruling said.

Having analyzed the applicants’ complaints, Strasbourg concluded that there were violations of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the Russian Federation. In particular, we are talking about the prohibition of discrimination, the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as the right of citizens to freedom of assembly and association. The ECHR ordered the Russian authorities to pay the applicants compensation in the amount of €9,750 to €23 thousand, as well as pay their legal costs. “The court drew attention to the fact that the state is obliged to protect persons on its territory from all forms of ill-treatment, including from private individuals,” wrote human rights activist Olga Gnezdilova, representing victims in the ECHR. “The court indicated that the authorities must “were to foresee all the risks associated with mass events of the LGBT community, taking into account the hostile attitude of part of Russian society towards them, and were obliged to promote an unambiguous tolerant and conciliatory position and warn those preparing an attack about sanctions.”

Let us remind youOn March 15, 2022, Russia announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as its refusal to implement ECHR decisions.

Emilia Gabdullina