ECHR to hear appeal against ban on LGBT pride events in Russia
MOSCOW. May 1 (Interfax) - The panel of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hear an appeal in the case "Alexeyev and Others v. Russia" of the Russian authorities' ban on LGBT pride events on May 6, Nikolay Alexeyev, one of the plaintiffs, said.
"The ECHR panel will decide the fate of our November case 'Alexeyev and Others v. Russia' to challenge the ban on gay pride parades and other public LGBT events in a number of cities of the country from 2009 to 2014. The hearing will take place in Strasbourg on May 6," LGBT activist Alexeyev said in a statement released on social networks.
The panel will decide whether to forward the case to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.
"Our case will be the only one, where both parties, both the plaintiffs and the government, lodged appeals. The panel's decision will be published in an ECHR press released on Tuesday, May 7," Alexeyev said.
Alexeyev said earlier that the LBGT activists had challenged the ban on gay pride events in 218 cities at the ECHR.
In November 2018, the ECHR ruled in the case "Alexeyev and Others v. Russia" to find the Russian authorities' ban on LGBT pride events illegal.
According to the court communique, Russia breached several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely: 11 (freedom of assembly and association), Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).
The court, in particular, found that "the decision to reject the applicants' requests to hold public LGBT events could not be justified by concerns over public disorder."
The Russian Justice Ministry promised to analyze the ECHR decision alongside relevant agencies.