As of a couple of weeks ago Russian authorities were harassing, threatening, and arresting activists and students ahead of protests planned in solidarity with the detained opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Social media companies were ordered by Russian authorities to take down any posts inviting people to participate or imcite protests. The legitimacy of those orders could definitely be doubted, as for many, those are simply unlawful attacks on freedom of expression, one could doubt whether instead authorities should have focused on ensuring safety measures to protect those who wished to assemble peacefully.
The Human Rights Watch has noted that in the last year all peaceful protests were banned from the political opposition - not that they were welcomed before - and has arrested and prosecuted those who did not comply. Although free speech and freedom of assembly are part of the of the Russian constitution and Russia is member of the Council of Europe, those rights remain merely on paper.
The Russian people should have every right to peacefully protests injustices and authorities should have the obligation to allow them to do so safely. Navalny’s case might be considered definitely within the right reasons for the protests that had happened, he was arrested immediately upon his return to Russia on January 17, after medical treatment in Germany for a near-fatal poisoning. At an extraordinary hearing at a police station, a judge authorized his detention for 30 days during which his suspended sentence could be revoked and replaced by prison time. Several leadinglawyers condemned the ruling as unlawful: the authorities put Navalny on a wanted list for failure to report to a parole officer while he was in Germany one day before his parole period expired.
Navalny called on his supporters to take to the streets to protest. Soon, his team called for coordinated protests on January 23. Authorities denied any request from Navalny’s supporters to protest because there was a ban on public assemblies imposed in the city since November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Authorities in several cities across Russia issued similar statements, citing pandemic restrictions or a requirement of a minimum 10-day advance notification. Protesters in any case saw no point in seeking official authorizations because they would not be issued.
Russian youth called others to attend the protests on social media and, in response, the authorities that social media companies that down these contents and threatened hefty fines. Access to so called “illegal information” was restricted with obvious consequences on freedom of expression and freedom of information. Administrative authorities in several Russian state universities, and schools threatened students with expulsion and some scheduled mandatory classes on January 23 to prevent turnout at the protests. In many cases university administrations published lists of students who subscribed to Navalny groups on social media, disclosing personal data including their names and addresses.
The threat to prosecute anyone calling for people to participate in the protests was made clear by the Interior Minister. Authorities “warned” civic activists and several media personalities and members of the anticorruption foundation associate with Navalny with visits in their homes and written threats about liability for participation in “unauthorized gatherings.”
Police detained several staff and members of Navalny’s team on January 21. Several layers associated with Navlny were detained and charged with disobeying police orders and in some cases were expelled from the country.
Those efforts to intimidate and prevent people from peacefully protesting violates rights such as freedom of expression, assembly and the prohibition of arbitrary detention that are guarantied by the European convention of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and in Russia’s own constitution. Limitation of those rights should be necessary and proportionate by international standards. Freedom of assembly is of fundamental importance and a person can’t be subject of any sanctions for participating in a protest that has prohibited, as long as hasn’t been committed an act of violence or any similar crime. In this case most of the protests were peaceful and most of the violence came from the police as many videos circulating online have shown.
The Russian authorities, like most, have the discretion to limit public gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19, but these must be strictly necessary, proportionate, and not applied in an arbitrary nor discriminatory manner. Russia has not announced a state of emergency in relation to the pandemic and has not sought to justify its extreme limitations on peaceful assemblies as an act of derogation from its obligations under human rights treaties. In many occasions the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner called on the Russian authorities to change its legislation and practice governing freedom of assembly and of expression, including in the context of the pandemic, to align them with European human rights standards. The commissioner restated that that the health restrictions introduced to fight the Covid-19 pandemic must not be used to excessively limit human rights and freedoms.
States’ responses to Covid-19 threat should not halt freedoms of assembly and association and while restrictions based on public health concerns are justified it is imperative the crisis not be used as a pretext to suppress rights in general or the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly in particular.
Nevertheless, people all over Russia gathered in the streets, aware of the consequences such as arrests and criminal charges, regardless of freezing temperatures and undisputed violence from authorities. Apparently this sort of treatment is commonly accepted as norm considering how past protests and agitation was handled by Russian authorities. Has finally the terrible disparity in wealth, enormous corruption present at any level of the state organization and lacking of transparency led Russians to rebel regardless of consequences?
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