World
Moscow Gay Human Rights Marches Ban Appealed to Court

May 1, 2008

Yuri Luzhkov

Organizers of Moscow Gay Pride lodged an appeal with the Tverskoi district court of Moscow this past weekend over the bans of City’s authorities of ten human rights marches which they planned for the May holidays, asking the court to rule the actions of Moscow City government unlawful.  

April 18, Pride organizers officially notified Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov of their intention to conduct human rights marches of sexual minorities on different routes in downtown Moscow on May 1 and 2.  

Last Friday, first deputy head of Moscow government security unit Vasily Oleynik, acting on behalf of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, banned all the events on security reasons.  

In his letter to Pride organizers, Oleynik said that “the aims of the events mentioned in the notifications provoke negative reaction of the society and conduct of these public events can lead to group violations of public order which creates danger for the security of the participants”.  

The Moscow government representative gave reference to Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights (freedom of assembly) according to which the right to peaceful events can be limited in the interests of public order, with the aim to prevent disorders, for the protection of health and morality and protection of the rights and liberties of other people.  

Currently the organizers of Moscow Pride await other official decisions of Moscow authorities on the marches between May 3 and 11. All the relevant notifications were sent to the Moscow government last week.  

Appeals against the bans of Moscow Gay Pride marches in May 2006 and May 2007 are already in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and decisions are still awaited.  

In this weekend's appeals to Tverskoi district court, organizers quote a number of European Court decisions, including one on the ban of Pride march in Warsaw in 2005, in which Strasbourg court interpreted Article 11 of the European Convention ruling that it does not allow to ban peaceful marches even when they provoke negative reaction from the majority in the society.  

“We will definitely win in this legal battle with Moscow government, it’s just a question of time,” Nikolai Alekseev, one of the Moscow Pride organizers, said this afternoon.  

“The bans of our peaceful public events are unlawful and the court has to take the relevant decisions. We are going to take May bans of our marches through Russian courts and then to Strasbourg if needed.”  

He promised that “the gay march in Moscow will take place in May, irrespective of the bans. This right is guaranteed to us by the Russian Constitution and we intend to use this right.”  

Organizers have previously said that they are going to apply for five marches each day in May and then to appeal all the bans to courts.  

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is famous for his homophobia. He called gay pride marches “satanic gatherings” and gays “weapons of mass distraction”. He has now banned Gay Pride marches in the city for three consecutive years.  

This morning, the Russian Interfax news agency reported that a “source” in Moscow City Hall had said the marches, described by the official as “the gay express”, would have a combined attendance of about 130,000 people.  

The source said it was highly unlikely that “the gay express” will arrive in Moscow and that the applications for the 25 meetings and marches would most likely be turned down.  

Article courtesy of UK Gay News .