St Petersburg Court Ordered the City to Allow First Gay Public Action before November 1st
18/10/2010
Submitted by
Nikolai Alekseev, GayRussia.Ru
City representative told the Judge that it will respect the Court decision.
Just a few days ago, I was mentionning the recent successes we made in Russia. First public action organized by LGBT people authorized in Moscow and protected by the police, homophobic Moscow Mayor and Prefect revoked, illegality of the closing of a gay club recognized by a Court, it turns to be that the trend continues further. And this time, there are more positive developpments coming from St Petersburg.
Last week, a Court judged illegal in first instance the ban by the City of one of the public demo which were supposed to be part of last June Gay Pride march in the city. Today, another Court also judged illegal the ban of another public action which was part of the march. Remember that organizers applied for a series of several public actions scheduled to take place on or around June 26, hoping that at least one of them would be authorized. But all their actions were banned on different grounds and no alternative was ever offered to the organizers.
But there is a major change in today's decision because -and this is new- the Judge gave until November 1st to the City authorities to let the applicants organize their action.
And the authorities told the Court that they will respect this right.
If the City hall respects the decision, this will be an amazing victory.
We are probably only days before the first public demo ever organized to defend and advocate for the rights of LGBT people in Russia. And this action will have to be protected by the police.
Remember that last June 26, when we attenpted to march in the city despite the bans, 5 of us were arrested.
I want to congratulate Maria Efremenkova and her team of the local LGBT group "Equality" for their efficient and tireless campaign in St Petersburg in the last months.
Thanks to their commitment in fighting for LGBT rights and also to their hard work to take on the challenge to try to organize a public event in the streets of the city, they finally started to break the wall of intolerance.
Today's case is the second to be won in a Russian Court on the issue of Freedom of Assembly for LGBT people. And this could well not be the last because, later this week, on thursday, the Moscow Appeal Court is expected to hold a second hearing on the ban of this year's Moscow Pride. This second hearing was surprisingly appointed by the Court in order to give more time to the representative of the City to provide further elements showing that the Police was unable to guaranty the safety of the participants. Russian Justice is giving itself a chance to judge the ban of Moscow Pride according to the law before the European Court of Human Rights gives its decision later this year.
For the first time in the last 5 years, we actually have some positive developpment to reports from Russian justice, and some very concrete results of the pressure we put on the judicial system. I hope this will continue and that soon, we will no longer need to apply to Court to be able to exercise any of our rights.
Just a few days ago, I was mentionning the recent successes we made in Russia. First public action organized by LGBT people authorized in Moscow and protected by the police, homophobic Moscow Mayor and Prefect revoked, illegality of the closing of a gay club recognized by a Court, it turns to be that the trend continues further. And this time, there are more positive developpments coming from St Petersburg.
Last week, a Court judged illegal in first instance the ban by the City of one of the public demo which were supposed to be part of last June Gay Pride march in the city. Today, another Court also judged illegal the ban of another public action which was part of the march. Remember that organizers applied for a series of several public actions scheduled to take place on or around June 26, hoping that at least one of them would be authorized. But all their actions were banned on different grounds and no alternative was ever offered to the organizers.
But there is a major change in today's decision because -and this is new- the Judge gave until November 1st to the City authorities to let the applicants organize their action.
And the authorities told the Court that they will respect this right.
If the City hall respects the decision, this will be an amazing victory.
We are probably only days before the first public demo ever organized to defend and advocate for the rights of LGBT people in Russia. And this action will have to be protected by the police.
Remember that last June 26, when we attenpted to march in the city despite the bans, 5 of us were arrested.
I want to congratulate Maria Efremenkova and her team of the local LGBT group "Equality" for their efficient and tireless campaign in St Petersburg in the last months.
Thanks to their commitment in fighting for LGBT rights and also to their hard work to take on the challenge to try to organize a public event in the streets of the city, they finally started to break the wall of intolerance.
Today's case is the second to be won in a Russian Court on the issue of Freedom of Assembly for LGBT people. And this could well not be the last because, later this week, on thursday, the Moscow Appeal Court is expected to hold a second hearing on the ban of this year's Moscow Pride. This second hearing was surprisingly appointed by the Court in order to give more time to the representative of the City to provide further elements showing that the Police was unable to guaranty the safety of the participants. Russian Justice is giving itself a chance to judge the ban of Moscow Pride according to the law before the European Court of Human Rights gives its decision later this year.
For the first time in the last 5 years, we actually have some positive developpment to reports from Russian justice, and some very concrete results of the pressure we put on the judicial system. I hope this will continue and that soon, we will no longer need to apply to Court to be able to exercise any of our rights.
