Moscow’s Supreme Court has approved a further intensification of human rights repression in the country. After a brief closed-door hearing, the Moscow Supreme Court announced that it had approved the Justice Ministry’s request to brand the “international public LGBT movement” as “extremist” and ban all its activities. The […]
CONTINUE READING
SUPPORT US
1 € FOR THE FIRST MONTH
Already a subscriber?
CONTINUE READING
Moscow’s Supreme Court has approved a further intensification of human rights repression in the country. After a brief closed-door hearing, the Moscow Supreme Court announced that it had approved the Justice Ministry’s request branded as an “extremist”. The “International public LGBT movement” and bans all its activitiesTo. The document is deliberately vague, but many fear that Moscow could persecute those who advocate for the rights of sexual minorities with arrests and criminal proceedings. Any initiative to defend the LGBT community will effectively become illegal.
The UN immediately condemned Putin’s actions against Russia: “No one should be imprisoned for human rights work or are denied these rights because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk He made it clear that he viewed Moscow’s move as a very serious violation. Vakhtang Kipshidze, a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Moscow Patriarch Kirill, is considered a close ally of Putin, instead supported the ruling, calling it “a form of moral self-defense of society.” For its part, the Kremlin claims that it has not pursued the matter, but it seems unlikely that this is the case.
As the Ansa agency reminds, in Russia political power and judicial power are closely linked, namely with the Kremlin He has already used the label “extremist” to attack people and organizations deemed inconvenient to those in power: including the linked groups Alexei Navalny, the Tsar’s greatest rival in prison for political reasons. In this context, sexual minorities in Russia have repeatedly had their rights, even the most basic ones, violated. Last summer, Moscow banned gender reassignment surgeries. Late last year, however, he passed a law banning even adults from “promoting” what the Kremlin considers “non-traditional sexual relationships,” effectively expanding the regrettably notorious 2013 law that already does not “promote.” -traditional sexual attitudes” among minors. This infamous law, introduced 11 years ago, potentially prevents any kind of activity in defense of the rights of the LGBT community and has rejected by the Strasbourg court because it is discriminatory and violates the right to freedom of expression. One of the most tragic situations is reported in Chechnya Novaya Gazeta and by several human rights defenders who accuse police of mass arrests, torture and even murder of gay people.