Alekseyev v. Russia

The Applicant, Nikolay Alexeyev (spelt by the Court, Alekseyev), born 23 December 1977 in Moscow, is a Russian LGBT rights activist, lawyer and journalist.

On 16 February, a statement was released by the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, stating that any proposed LGBT rights march would not be permitted to go ahead.

On 18 May, the organisers were informed that the Mayor had refused permission for the march on grounds of public order, for the prevention of riots and the protection of health, morals and the rights and freedoms of others.

The Applicant's account of events on this day was corroborated by reports from the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and Human Rights Watch.

The Applicant then submitted a raft of other proposals, including one to the recently elected President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, stating his intention to hold a march in the Alexander Garden on 31 May 2008, to which he received no reply.

The Applicant appealed all of the refusals unsuccessfully, and attempted to organise a picket for 17 May calling for criminal charges to be brought against the Mayor for banning the marches.

Permission for this was refused on 13 May on the same grounds as previously, however the organisers managed to hold a picket for around ten minutes on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street near the Mayor's residence.

He claimed finally that the sweeping nature of the ban was disproportionate and could not be justified on the grounds that it may have shocked or confused some parts of society (Bączkowski v Poland).

(para.73) The Government had referred inter alia to a statement opposing the ban by the head Muslim cleric in Nizhniy Novgorod (Russia's fourth-largest city), that, "as a matter of necessity, homosexuals must be stoned to death", as evidence of the likely public disorder which would result from the march.

The Court found that, "[b]y relying on such blatantly unlawful calls as grounds for the ban, the authorities effectively endorsed the intentions of persons and organisations that clearly and deliberately intended to disrupt a peaceful demonstration in breach of the law and public order."

Article 13 requires that within a member state a competent national authority must be able to provide a suitable domestic remedy to an aggrieved party, both to deal with the substance of the relevant Convention complaint and to grant appropriate relief.

Parties' submissions The Government claimed that the antagonistic nature of the relationship between sexual minorities and religious groups in Russia meant it was necessary to place restrictions on the exercise of certain rights.

It was necessary to show not just that measures taken were "suitable in general", but that they were "necessary in the circumstances" (para.108), and that if the sole reason put forward by a member state for restrictions on access to the Convention rights were the victims' homosexuality, it would amount to discrimination under Article 14.