27 May 2007 is set as the date of the second gay pride march in the Russian capital

Organisers of last year’s first-ever Moscow Gay Pride have today formally taken their case of the ban by the authorities in the Russian capital of both a parade and a “picket” to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

This follows the unsuccessful appeals against the bans through the Russian court system, which are now exhausted, as far as requirements of European Court’s jurisprudence are concerned.

The organizers are considering appealing pride bans to the Russian Supreme Court parallel to their European Court application though it will not effect the consideration of the case in Strasbourg.

At the same time, Moscow Pride organisers announced that this year’s Moscow Pride will definitely be going ahead, and that an application for a parade will be made in accordance with Russian law, two weeks before the event, scheduled for Sunday May 27, the day in 1993 when homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia.

The 20-page application to the European Court of Human Rights, drafted in English language, combines two cases: one concerning the ban by Moscow authorities of the gay pride march and the second concerning the banning of the alternative pride picket, both scheduled for May 27, 2006.

In the application, the litigants claim that in denying permission to stage both the march and the picket the Russian Federation breached Article 11 (right to freedom of peaceful assembly), Article 13 (right to effective court protection) and Article 14 (discrimination ban) in conjunction with Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory.

The application sent to Strasbourg today fully explains the legal position of the organisers of the gay pride, and proves that the decisions of Russian authorities to ban the march and the picket contradict both with Russian legislation and the European Convention.

It also describes turbulent events in the centre of Moscow which took place on May 27 last year when the protestors attacked pride participants while police looked the other way. Also specifically mentioned are illegal actions of Moscow police to detain peaceful participants of gay events.

Organisers of Moscow Pride give a whole range of evidence that suggests the real reasons behind the ban of the march and picket were in the personal dislike by the mayor of Moscow of the aims of these events.

The application cites a number of statements by mayor Yuri Luzhkov made before and after May 27, which prove the discriminatory nature of the banning of both the march and picket.

The document to the Court contains 29 attachments which give light to the events around the first ever gay pride in the Russian capital.

Organisers of the Pride ask the European Court to judge that Russian Federation breached their rights, guaranteed by the European Convention, and that it has to pay 20,000 euros (£13,000 or $US26,000) in compensation.

Nikolai Alekseev, one of the organisers of Moscow Pride, said today that the application was very important as it underpins the future of the whole LGBT community in Russia.

“It is about the future, in which the rights of homosexual people will be acknowledged and respected and where they will not be second class citizens without fundamental rights – and unable to fight for our rights and dignity in our courts.”

He admitted that there was no way of predicting when the European Court will consider the application.

“Not a single European legal expert we have spoken with doubts in the success of our application to the Court,” he said.

“Trying to silence us, the Russian authorities denied us one of the fundamental human rights. The European justice will have the last say in this case. After that not a single official, including the Moscow Mayor, will be able to deprive us of our legal right to freedom of public expression.”

Mr. Alekseev paid tribute to the legal assistance the gay pride organisers had received while preparing the application.

“I must pay my deepest respect to our attorney Dmitri Bartenev, who in many cases was not in the news but who did a colossal work on this very case. I must also thank a lot professor Robert Wintemute from King’s College London, whose expert help was so valuable and played a very important role,” he said.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was officially notified by the organisers of the planned march last year on May 15, in accordance with Russian federal law.

Three days later, the Moscow city authorities denied permission for the event due to what they claimed was the “impossibility to provide adequate security”. However, it was no secret that a gay pride – and a march – was being organised. Mayor Luzhkov even commented on it at a press conference in Berlin last February, publicly vowing that he would not permit the march to go ahead. Mr. Luzhkov’s statements in Berlin are also quoted in the application to the European Court.

The march was supposed to take place on Saturday May 27 as part of the first-ever Moscow Pride.  The planned route was along Myasnitskaya Street in Moscow to Lubyanskaya Square – and up to 2,000 participants were expected to take part.

The day before the planned Pride march, the Tverskoi district court of Moscow confirmed the legality of the ban by Moscow authorities and on September 19 the Moscow City Court confirmed the decision of the ‘first instance court’.

Then, on December 25, the Moscow City Court denied an application to review the ban “in extraordinary procedure of the court’s Presidium”.

After the organizers of Moscow Pride received a letter of denial to stage the march, they notified the Prefecture of the Central Administrative District of Moscow on May 23 that they would be staging a “picket” in Lubyanskaya Square as an alternative to the march.

Giving the same reason as Moscow City Hall for not allowing the march – that it would be impossible to provide security of the event, the Prefecture banned the picket.

This decision was also appealed through the Russian court system with the same result as the appeals on the march.

Mr. Alekseev said that he was hopeful that the application for this year’s march will be successful.

“The uniqueness of the situation this year will be in the fact that not a single member-state of the Council of Europe experienced two applications in a row to the European Court on the issue of gay pride marches bans”.

“The application to the European Court by the Warsaw gay pride organizers on the ban of their march in 2005, though still being considered in Strasbourg, helped to get a permission of the similar march last year,” he pointed out.

Mr. Alekseev added that if a ban is placed on this year’s march, “we will again take the case to the European Court”.

“State authorities should respect the laws,” he said. “That is what the authorities also expect from all of us. Under the Russian constitution and legislation everyone has the right to peaceful marches and other public events”.

“The authorities are obliged to guarantee the recognition of this right and provide the security of its participants.”

The events of first Moscow gay pride are the subject of a documentary film by Vladimir Ivanov, “MOCKBA. PRIDE ‘06”. The world premiere is scheduled to take place on February 11 at the Berlin Film Festival with subsequent screenings on February 14 and 15.

GayRussia.Ru, UkGayNews.Org.Uk