The European Court of Human Rights has ruled today that the ban of LGBT demonstration organised by GENDERDOC-M Information Centre in May 2005 was contradictory to Articles 11 (freedom of assembly and association), 13 (right to an effective remedy) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Republic of Moldova is to pay GENDERDOC-M Information Centre compensation in the amount of 11,000 Euros within following three months.

For the first time in Moldova’s judicial history, the European Court of Human Rights has found the state liable for violating Article 14 of the ECHR, which explicitly prohibits discrimination. It took six years for the Court to eventually recognise state-sponsored discrimination against people on the ground of sexual orientation in the Republic of Moldova, though in conjunction with the Article 11 of the Convention.

The GENDERDOC-M Information Centre expresses its deep gratitude to the lawyer Natalia Mardari from the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) who represented interests of the Centre throughout the entire trial, both nationally and internationally.

Anastasia Danilova, Executive Director of GENDERDOC-M Information Centre, said: “This is a historic moment for Moldova’s LGBT movement which proves once again the well-known axiom that LGBT rights are human rights. If Moldovan authorities refuse to recognise this self-evident fact, they are doomed to be shamed on the international level and pay significant monetary compensations to victims. We congratulate everybody who believe in principles of equality and universality of human rights that justice has been eventually restored”.

The entire text of judgment can be found here