MOSCOW, February 14, 2008 (GayRussia.ru)  –  Organisers of Moscow Gay Pride have today sent the case that their human rights were breached when the Mayor of Moscow banned the Pride march last May to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

It is the second application to the Court from Gay Pride organisers in Moscow – a similar case following the 2006 ban is awaiting a hearing.

Organisers of Pride claim that the Russian Federation, which signed the European Convention on Human Rights when it joined the Council of Europe following the demise of the Soviet Union, breached their rights enshrined in the European Convention.

They are claiming compensation of 36 million roubles (£740,000, €1 million or $1.5 million).

The package of documents sent to Strasbourg contains 110 pages, including the application itself and 30 attachments.

Organisers claim that by banning the Gay Pride march and the pickets in support for tolerance and respect for the rights and freedoms of homosexual people in Russia, the authorities breached Article 11 (right to freedom of assembly), Article 13 (right to effective legal protection) and Article 14 (discrimination ban) of the European Convention ratified by Russian Federation.

The application to Strasbourg contains detailed legal explanation of the unlawfulness of public Pride event bans as well as information which proves the discriminative nature of the Pride ban.  Also, the complaint contains what organisers claim are homophobic quotes from Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and copies of internal correspondence between Moscow and Russian authorities on the issue of the conduct of gay pride in the capital.

Last years Gay Pride march was planned to take place in Moscow on May 27 from Central Post Office along Myasnitskaya Street up to Lubyanskaya Square where former KGB headquarters is located.  Organizers informed Moscow Mayor about their intentions in full accordance with the law. But the Mayor decided to ban it.

On May 16, the head of security within Moscow government Nikolai Kulikov denied the permission for the march in the name of Mayor Luzhkov.  In his letter to the organisers he said that the march can not go ahead because of threat to security.

Then, on September4 the Tverskoi district court of Moscow ruled that the ban of the march by the authorities was lawful.  Moscow City Court confirmed this decision in appeal hearing on December 6.

As an alternative to the banned march the organisers notified Prefecture of the Central Area of Moscow about two pickets which they planned to conduct on May  27 – one on Tverskaya Square in front of the City Hall and another in Novopushkinskiy Park in the central Moscow.

On May 23, both events were banned by the Prefect of the Central Area, Sergei Baidakov.  He gave reference to Article 11 of the European Convention which reads that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly can be restricted in the interests of public order, to prevent disorders, for the protection of health and morals as well as the rights and freedoms of other people.

The Taganski district court of Moscow ruled on August 24 that Prefecture’s decision was lawful – and on November 8, the Moscow City Court dismissed the appeal by the Pride organisers.

While the Gay Pride march did not go ahead, both Russian and visiting foreign activists and politicians decided to collectively deliver a petition against Moscow Gay Pride ban to the City Hall.

But the police did not allow this to happen, and arrested Nikolai Alekseev, main organiser of Gay Pride, Transnational Radical Party activist Nikolai Khramov, and Free Radicals activist Sergei Konstantinov.

For UK Gay News coverage of the troubled 2007 Moscow Gay Pride, click HERE.

Mr. Alekseev said today that the lodging of a second appeal over a Gay Pride is a “very unusual” situation.

“Not a single [member] country of the Council of Europe has had to respond to two cases of Gay Pride bans in the European Court.”

He went on to say that he was “absolutely confident” of an ultimate win in Strasbourg.  “The Russian authorities deprived us of the right which is guaranteed to us not only by the Constitution but also by the European Convention,” he said.

“We already have a precedent on such a case in the jurisprudence of the European Court,” he pointed out.  “In May last year Strasbourg court ruled that the ban of Gay Pride march in Warsaw breached the European Convention.  We will see the same result in our case,” he predicted..

Mr. Alekseev stressed it “is not possible to calculate all the sufferings created by the Moscow and Russian authorities when they banned the Pride. That is the reason for such a heavy compensation which we are claiming.

“We are going to spend all the money that we win [in the case] on further development of the LGBT movement in Russia,” he said.

The 2008 Moscow Gay Pride is scheduled to take place on May 31 and will coincide with the 15th anniversary since decriminalisation of homosexual relations in Russia.

Mayor Luzhkov, who last year described gay pride events as “satanic gatherings”, has already said that he will veto any application received by Moscow City Hall for a march.

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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 15:00 (UK time)