The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) recently ruled that Russia had discriminated against a teacher, referred to as A.K. in the case A.K. v. Russia, who was dismissed after her pictures indicating same-sex orientation surfaced on the internet.
In November of 2014, the pictures in question, inclusive of A.K. kissing other women, were compiled by a Russian NGO from social media. Once the school was informed of these images, A.K. was asked to resign as the school deemed her conduct as “propagation of non-traditional sexual orientation”. Despite her opposition, A.K. was eventually dismissed from her position in December 2014. Upon unsuccessful attempts to fight this decision in Russian national courts, A.K. approached the ECHR in 2016, before Russia exited the system.
The ECHR concluded that there were violations on two accounts – the right to privacy, and the prohibition of discrimination under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Contrary to justifications on the basis of her sexual orientation given by the Russian courts, the ECHR ruled that the dismissal was disproportionate and therefore constituted an infringement of her private life, as well as constituted discrimination. The Court ordered Russia to compensate the complainant with a total of 22,500 Euros.
In the past years, Russia has been increasingly hostile towards the LGBTQ community, labeling expressions of non-traditional sexual orientations as “propaganda”. In 2022, the Russian parliament adopted a bill banning the promotion of LGBTQ information among the population. The resolution led to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, expressing deep concern over the violation of LGBTQ people’s fundamental rights by the legislation. The persecution of this community further intensified in March 2024 when a Russian watchdog labeled the LGBTQ public movement as a terrorist organization, equating it to groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This state of affairs has made it extremely difficult for LGBTQ people in Russia to safeguard their human rights and to express their sexual orientation both publicly and privately.
You can find further information on the case and its humanitarian implications in the complete article on JURIST – News.