Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 23 – Russia’s exclusion from the Council of Europe has led many to suggest that the European Court for Human Rights will no longer be playing a role in Russia; but in fact, Olga Gnezdilova says, Russia’s exit from the Council of Europe and its institutions is not going to take place quickly and the Court will continue to play a role for several years.
Currently, the Court has on its docket 18,000 cases from Russia, the lawyer with the Legal Initiative Project says; and even now and in the future, Russian citizens will be able to appeal to the court concerning violations they have suffered in the past and until January 1, 2023 (daptar.ru/2022/03/23/put-v-evropejskij-sud-zakryvaetsya-chto-budet-dalshe/).
“The good news,” she says, is that according to the rules, “a country can get out of its agreements with the Council of Europe only when all current cases are considered, even if their consideration will take several years,” as seems almost certain for Russia given the volume of complaints against it.
“The bad news is naturally that after the beginning of 2023, it will not be possible for Russian citizens to appeal to the Court,” Gnezdilova continues. And as a result, “we expect an upsurge of cases involving the use of force both in the sphere of family violence and also by the organs of power.”
The Council of Europe and its Court have been restraining factors in Russia; now those restraints are disappearing. One hopes that Russia will change and be taken back into the Council of Europe – that happened with Greece earlier – but it is obvious that nothing like that is going to happen anytime soon.
In the meantime, those involved in the defense of human rights in Russia will continue to work, turning to the UN and its institutions when possible. But the situation in society and especially in the courts is getting worse. No one should be under any illusions about that, the lawyer says.
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