Russians will soon lose access to the European Court of Human Rights. Here’s what you need to know.

Following Russia’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe on March 16, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced that it was suspending the examination of all applications against the Russian Federation. In ceasing to be a member of the CoE, Russia denounced the European Convention on Human Rights, which forms the basis of the ECtHR’s work. 

So what happens now? Where can Russian nationals turn if their rights have been violated? Meduza asked experts from the Saint Petersburg-based rights group Citizens’ Watch to answer these and other key questions.

The ECtHR still accepts applications against Russia for the time being.

On March 22, the European Court ruled that it will continue to accept applications against the Russian Federation so long as they concern rights violations that occurred before September 16, 2022. This is due to the fact that Russia’s denunciation of the European Convention on Human Rights formally comes into effect after six months (in other words, the Russian Federation will officially cease to be a party to the Convention on September 16, 2022). 

Applications against the Russian Federation can still be filed after this date, but not over new violations. The Court must also consider previously filed complaints that are still awaiting judgements. What remains unclear is whether or not Russia will actually comply with the court’s rulings.

Previously, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that the Russian Federation executed approximately 95 percent of the ECtHR’s rulings against it, paying tens of millions of euros in compensation every year. That said, the European Court doesn’t always rule in favor of the plaintiff. In 2021, for example, there were 17,013 complaints against Russia pending before the court, but only 741 rulings against Russia were actually adopted. 

In principle, you can file a lawsuit over a violation of your rights with a Russian court. In this sense, nothing has changed: even when Russia was a member of the Council of Europe, plaintiffs had to exhaust all of their options within the domestic court system before they could apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Russian Constitution (even after it was amended in 2020) guarantees almost all of the rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. And some of the Convention’s provisions that aren’t directly reflected in the Russian Constitution (for example, the ban on slavery) are spelled out in other Russian laws. 

You can appeal to the United Nations, since Russia is still a member state. 

UN member states are party to various international treaties that protect human rights. These agreements include the creation of committees that monitor whether or not the signatories are fulfilling their obligations.

Member countries (including Russia) are required to submit reports to these oversight committees. These reports are then reviewed by independent experts who offer opinions and recommendations. Most importantly, these treaty bodies review individual complaints. 

Russia hasn’t signed and ratified all of the UN’s conventions on human rights protections. But here are the treaty bodies that will consider individual applications against Russia: 

You should appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee.

The filing and review procedure is essentially the same as appealing to the European Court of Human Rights — that is, you have to go through the Russian court system first and exhaust your domestic options. 

An individual complaints form is available on the website of the UN Human Rights Office. Once you’ve downloaded the form, filled it out, and signed it, you can scan the document and email it to petitions@ohchr.org (along with an unsigned version of the form). Paper communications are not accepted unless it’s impossible for you to submit your petition electronically!

Annexes to the form should include all court rulings related to the complaint, as well as other relevant official documents that confirm the facts and arguments of the appeal. 

Unlike judgments from the European Court of Human Rights, the conclusions of UN committees aren’t binding — these committees issue opinions, not rulings. As such, UN committees may recommend that the state pay compensation for rights violations, but they don’t determine a specific amount. There’s no procedure for the implementation of these opinions. However, under Russian law, a court ruling can be revised on the basis of an opinion from a UN committee.

For example, in 2012, Samara resident Svetlana Medvedeva filed a lawsuit against a company that refused to hire her as a riverboat captain, despite the fact that she held a degree in nautical navigation. The company referenced the Russian government’s list of professions banned to women. After losing her court case in Russia, Medvedeva appealed to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which issued an opinion in her favor. 

After that, in 2017, the Russian Supreme Court overturned the earlier court rulings and sent Medvedeva’s case back to trial. In the end, Medvedeva didn’t get the job, but her efforts weren’t in vain: a Russian court confirmed discrimination against her and the Russian government made serious cuts to its list of exclusively “male” professions.

In such cases, UN committees can ask the authorities to adopt so-called temporary measures (the ECtHR issues something similar, called “emergency measures,” which are — at least formally — binding). Temporary measures can be applied in urgent cases if the applicant is at risk of “irreparable harm.” For example, to suspend deportation to a country where the applicant would be under threat of torture or ill-treatment. Or, if the applicant is trying to overturn a death sentence (Russia has a moratorium on capital punishment, however, the country’s exit from the Council of Europe makes the reinstatement of the death penalty a realistic possibility). 

For example, in 2018, the UN Committee Against Torture reviewed an application from Danil Gabdulkhakov, who Russia had sentenced to life in prison for terrorism and the murder of three police officers. Russian law enforcement had tortured Gabdulkhakov to extract a confession and his violent arrest was shown on television. The Committee Against Torture asked the Russian authorities to provide protection for the witnesses and representatives in the case — Gabdulkhakov himself and his family. Whether or not the Russian authorities heeded this request remains unknown to this day. 

You can appeal to the so-called Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council (not to be confused with the aforementioned Human Rights Committee). 

These Special Procedures are actually independent experts that the UN has tasked with reporting and advising on human rights based on their thematic or country-specific areas of expertise. For example, there’s a special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities. You can contact these experts online and ask them to send a “communication” to the state authorities. A “communication” is a letter outlining the allegations of human rights violations and requesting clarification, or demanding that the authorities take action to address or stop a violation. Communications are not binding, but they draw attention to the problem at the international and national level. 

For example, on September 30, 2021, UN special rapporteurs sent a communication to the Russian Federation seeking clarification on the case of prominent migrant rights activist Valentina Chupik, after the authorities revoked her refugee status in Russia and barred her from entering the country. On November 12, Russia’s envoys informed the UN Human Rights Council of the following: after being denied entry into Russia, Chupik flew to Yerevan voluntarily; the Russian Interior Ministry had received Chupik’s petitions concerning the revocation of her refugee status; and no criminal proceedings were instituted against her. 

You can find a complete list of the mandates of the Special Procedures here and the guidelines for submitting applications here. 

Appealing to the United Nations is free and there’s no need for you to physically go anywhere. The UN only provides written proceedings — there are no public meetings that would require applicants to travel to New York City, where the organization’s headquarters are located, or anywhere else. 

If you live in Russia, Citizens’ Watch is available to help with applications to these bodies through its lawyers — you can contact them at this email address: jurist@citwatch.org.