Right to freedom of peaceful assembly in Russia: the Lashmankin and others case

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Lashmankin and others v Russian Federation (Application No 57818/09)

Briefed on 3rd March 2022 and 25th May 2021

The Lashmankin group mainly concerns violations of the right to freedom of assembly in different Russian cities in 2006-2017 (violations of Article 11, interpreted in the light of Article 10), lack of an effective remedy in this respect (violations of Article 13 in conjunction with Article 11), deprivation of liberty of the participants in violation of domestic law (violations of Article 5 § 1), excessive use of force to disperse such events and failure to duly investigate it (violations of Article 3), blocking of internet posts calling for the participation in peaceful assemblies and convictions for such calls (violation of Article 10) and subsequent consideration of some of the cases related to these events in violation of in dubio pro reo principle in that the courts interpreted the doubts in favour of the police (violations of Article 6). The Court also found other violations in some of the cases.

The violations of Article 13 were found on account of the absence of an effective remedy to challenge refusals to approve the location, time and manner of conduct of a planned public event (§ 360) first, because at the material time there was no guarantee that complaints against such refusals would be considered by the courts before the planned public event; secondly, because the existing law and practice did not ensure an examination of the issue of proportionality.

Under Article 46 in the Korneyeva case, the Court highlighted the impossibility of reopening administrative proceedings following the Court’s judgments (§ 69). It also indicated that more measures are necessary to address the problem of ne bis in idem (§ 72).

In the two Navalnyy cases the Court found violations of Article 18 of the Convention.

The most recent developments of the case were presented on 3rd March 2022.

Documents from the March 2022 briefing:

Documents from the May 2021 briefing:

The case was briefed by Denis Shedow, from OVD-Info and Tatiana Chernikova from HRC Memorial.