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Amid the swirling violence on Tverskaya Street on May 27, a lesbian told Human Rights Watch, “Words can hurt more than eggs or stones. They can enter your mind.” As with other groups facing abuse, vilifying LGBT people contributes to denying their freedoms. Another lesbian arrested that day said, “We want to be legalized”—suggesting how the 1992 repeal of the law against homosexual conduct has not, in fifteen years, translated into real rights or equality.
Yet despite violence and division, others felt the day’s events as, however improbably, a victory. Another lesbian, just freed from jail, told us,
We did what we wanted. We wanted to attract the world’s attention to the discrimination we face, and show that we weren’t going to be killed by the hatred of society. And we did that. Homosexual people are suffering violence—and not just homosexual people, but all those in this society who are different. But we will show this society that violence and racism are not everything, that there is another way.
And she added, “I love my girlfriend, and I want to be allowed to say that in my own country.”42
Human Rights Watch and ILGA-Europe make the following recommendations:
- Freedom of assembly, as guaranteed under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, must be respected. Peaceful demonstrations should be treated as permissible, regardless of their political or other purposes, without discrimination—in line with the Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which state that “Anything not expressly forbidden in law should be presumed to be permissible, and those wishing to assemble should not be required to obtain permission to do so.” Police have a duty to protect peaceful demonstrators from violence and should cease harassment and detentions of demonstrators who do not violate public order. Violent attempts to interfere with demonstrations should be appropriately investigated and punished.
- Comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation should be enacted, including protections against unequal treatment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Russia should ratify Protocol 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, on the prohibition of discrimination.
- All state officials should receive training in human rights, including issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Human rights concerns, including freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, as well as issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, should be raised in all meetings with Russian officials at the highest levels. The European Union and member states should press Russia to restore freedom of expression and end media censorship; amend the Law on Nongovernmental Organizations of 2006 to remove its most restrictive elements; and ensure freedom of assembly for all.
- The European Parliament’s delegation to Russia should raise human rights concerns, including the violations committed during Moscow Pride 2007, in bilateral dialogue and urge legislative changes to protect basic freedoms.
- European Commission delegations to third countries, including to Russia, should provide financial and technical assistance to civil society groups working for human rights, including groups working on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
- The European Commission should include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as a specific target group in implementation of the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (a program to support human rights, democratization and conflict prevention worldwide, in particular through partnership with and support of civil society).
- The Human Rights Directorate should include issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in their trainings for police, including protection of participants in public demonstrations such as pride parades.
- The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe should include references to human rights abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity in its next monitoring report on Russia.
- The Commissioner on Human Rights should raise violations of the freedom of assembly vigorously with Russian authorities.
- The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe should write a report and endorse a recommendation to the Committee of Ministers on protecting and promoting the freedom of assembly throughout Europe for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
- The Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) should monitor respect for and fulfillment of the right to freedom of assembly, in particular in difficult environments, in all OSCE participating States.
- The OSCE should, in all its work, recognize sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds protected from discrimination, including in enjoying freedom of assembly.
- The OSCE should include protection of LGBT public demonstrations in difficult environments as a special topic in police trainings for participating states, along with addressing crimes motivated by hate on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.
- All OSCE participating States should raise human rights violations in Russia in bilateral dialogue, including violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and call for legislative and policy change to protect democratic freedoms.
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