Russian MPs vote to quit European Court of Human Rights

Russian MPs vote to quit European Court of Human Rights

Web Desk
June 7, 2022

Russian MPs vote to quit European Court of Human Rights

Russia had been under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.
Moscow was kicked out of the Council of Europe in March.
Russia had been under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

Russian lawmakers On Tuesday passed legislation that effectively removes Moscow from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

The vote came after Russia was kicked out of the Council of Europe in March after President Vladimir Putin dispatched troops to Ukraine on February 24.

According to observers, the move deprived Russians of what many activists saw as their last hope for justice and stifled efforts to integrate the country into the international rights framework.

“The European Court of Human Rights has become an instrument of the political battle against our country in the hands of Western politicians,” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, said following the vote.

“Some of its decisions were in direct contradiction to the Russian constitution, our values, and our traditions,” he said in a statement.

Russia had been under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights — overseen by the continent’s top rights organization — for more than 20 years, becoming its biggest purveyor of cases.

As part of the amendments, Russia will not carry out rulings of the ECHR that were issued after March 15, the day Moscow said it would pull out of the Council of Europe after pressure mounted for Moscow to be expelled.

Volodin added that any future pay-outs that were ordered before March 15 would only be paid in rubles and into Russian bank accounts.

The legislation also stipulates that Russian courts have the power to overrule decisions of the ECHR.

The Council of Europe’s so-called “Ruxit” will have far-reaching consequences.

Campaigners have warned of a potential escalation of the crackdown on Russia’s beleaguered civil society in the midst of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, worsening prisoner abuse, and the reinstatement of the death penalty.