The ECHR ordered Russia to pay Pussy Riot compensation for refusing to register an NGO
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the complaint of members of the punk group Pussy Riot against the ban on registration of their Russian NGO “Zone of Law” decided recover more than €24 thousand from Russia as compensation. After the country left the Council of Europe, the Russian authorities announced that they would no longer implement the decisions of the ECHR and pay court-ordered compensation.
In 2013, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (listed as foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation), Maria Alyokhina and Vladimir Rubashny announced their intention to create a non-profit human rights organization to protect the rights of prisoners. They were denied registration of the organization, claiming that the submitted documents did not correspond to the status of the organization.
The ECHR found that the refusal to register the NPO was unlawful. “The court found that there were not sufficiently detailed instructions and formal requirements for registering an NPO and completing the relevant forms. The indicated inaccuracies in the documents do not provide grounds for refusal of registration,” the court ruling says. According to the court decision, the Russian authorities must pay €9.5 thousand in compensation to each of the plaintiffs, and they were also awarded €1.9 thousand in legal costs.
In 2021, the Russian Ministry of Justice included the NPO “Zone of Law” in the register of foreign agents. In July 2023, an organization from the list of foreign agents was excluded in connection with its liquidation.
Russia announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe on March 15, 2022. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws establishing a deadline for the country to implement ECHR rulings. The Russians’ complaints were considered by the ECHR until September 16. Russia was the leader in the number of applications to the ECHR. It accounted for 16,750 cases (22.4% of all cases).
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