New cases against Russia communicated concerning sexual orientation discrimination





The European Court of Human Rights has communicated the following complaints against Russia concerning sexual orientation discrimination.

Gromadskaya and Bolonin v Russia

The applications concern the allegedly ineffective investigation into an attack on the applicants, a transgender homosexual man and a transgender person of non-binary gender, which was committed by an unknown man in a bar in St Petersburg on 14 October 2017.

According to the applicants, the perpetrator approached them having seen a rainbow bracelet (symbol of LGBTI pride and social movements) on their friend. Then he insulted them referring to their alleged homosexuality and beat them up, inflicting several contusions.

The applicants reported the incident to the 10th police station in the Nevskiy District of St Petersburg (“the police”), which opened administrative proceedings into the incident under Article 6.1.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (“Battery”).

Alleging that the attack had been motivated by hatred against LGBTI people the applicants sought a criminal case to be opened by the police. Several times the police refused to initiate criminal proceedings into the incident. It held that the attack had not amounted to a criminal offence. After several complaints had been lodged by the applicants’ lawyer with various domestic authorities, including the Nevskiy District Court in St Petersburg, the police decisions not to open a criminal case were overruled by the deputy prosecutor in the Nevskiy District of St Petersburg for being premature and ill-founded. It appears that the criminal pre-investigation inquiry is still ongoing.

R.Y. v Russia

The application concerns the administrative removal of the applicant, an HIV-positive openly gay man, to Uzbekistan where he would allegedly face the real risk of treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention in the light of the criminal prohibition of consensual sexual intercourse between men in that country.





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