Russia passes law allowing them to ignore international human rights decisions
The Russian government votes to pass law which enables them to ignore decisions handed down by foreign justice bodies.
Last week, the state Duma voted to pass a draft law titled “On Amendments to the Federal Constitutional Law ‘On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation”.
The bill-drafted by all four Russian parliamentary parties – will allow the country to over turn any decision handed to them by the European Court of Human Rights.
Earlier this year, the Supreme court of Russia established that no international treaty held precedence over national sovereignty and any international decision meted out would only be upheld if it didn’t contradict basic Russian law.
Speaking at the Russian constitutional court, Judge Sergey Mavrin said “All decisions of the ECHR must be executed only with consideration to the Russian Constitution’s supremacy”.
He added “As an exception, Russia can refuse to fulfill the imposed obligations when such a refusal is the only way to prevent the violation of the basic law”.
The sponsors of the bill also added that they simply wanted to “oppose the prejudiced rulings” demanding sizeable monetary compensations from the government.
The country – no stranger to human rights violations – has recently passed laws giving the police power to fine and imprison its citizens for protesting for a period of up to 15 years.
The Russian people are also subject to harassment and intimidation by authorities with the LGBT community being particularly vulnerable to these violations.
Members of the community face smear campaigns, violent attacks and fines for “the public expression of non-traditional sexual relations, manifested in a public demonstration of personal perverted sexual preferences in public places.” which includes innocent displays of affection such as hand holding.
One reason Russia has put this new law forward could be the result of a fine imposed by the European Court of $2.5 billion for the unfair tax proceedings case involving the now defunct Russian oil company Yukos.
However, this law also allows them to sidestep other decisions by the ECHR concerning the country’s enactment of unpopular LGBT laws.
If passed, law No 931766-66, will only serve to take yet another right away fro the Russian people.
