Press Release, 9.11.2022

Photo: Yaroslav Shcherbakov and Vasily Moskovets / Photo from social media

On 9 November, the Second Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg overturned the decision of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court and invalidated the decrees of the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region that excluded three territories from the list of public areas in Chelyabinsk where rallies can be held without prior notification of the authorities (the so-called “hyde parks”). Now, after the official publication of the decision of the court, Russian citizens will be able to gather in these public areas without mandatory notification of the authorities and getting their permission for holding a rally.  Yaroslav Shcherbakov, Chairman of the Chelyabinsk Yabloko, Anna Ilyina, a member of the Regional Council of Yabloko and human rights activist, and Vasily Moskovets, human rights defender, won the litigation over the right of citizens to free assembly in the city’s venues.

It should be noted that three public venues were excluded from the list of the Chelyabinsky “hyde parks” by the decrees of the current governors of the Chelyabinsk Region in 2018 and 2022. After that, only two “hyde parks” for citizens to hold public events (assemblies, rallies, pickets) without getting permissions from the authorities remained in the city consisting of seven municipalities. However, according to the Constitutional Court of Russia, there should be a “hyde park” in every municipality.

In the summer, Yaroslav Shcherbakov sent a proposal to Governor Alexei Teksler to approve seven venues located in seven districts of Chelyabinsk as “hyde parks”.

The Governor ignored the proposals of Yabloko and the residents of Chelyabinsk. Then Yaroslav Shcherbakov filed a lawsuit with the Chelyabinsk Regional Court demanding that a “hyde park” be opened in each of the seven districts of Chelyabinsk. The court dismissed the claims, and the plaintiffs appealed to the court of appeal.

The first hearing in the Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg took place on 25 October. The second hearing was scheduled for November 9: the court gave time to the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region to justify their decision on the liquidation of “hyde parks”, not being satisfied with the explanation that the venues for the rallies had been chosen “in order to take into account the proposals of the head of the city of Chelyabinsk and the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chelyabinsk Region”.

At the second hearing of the case, the Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg overturned the decision of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court and invalidated the decrees of the Government of the Chelyabinsk Region that excluded three territories from the list of city “hyde parks”.

“The court decision comes into force today, but like the canceled decisions, it must be officially published. Until then, please refrain from using the above-mentioned venues for holding public events without notice,” Yaroslav Shcherbakov wrote in his Telegram channel.

According to Shcherbakov, “hyde parks” situated in convenient places represent an additional guarantee of the right to peaceful assembly (Article 31 of the Constitution of the RF), which civil society needs so much in the current situation as protection against the refusal of the authorities to give their permissions to protest events and initiation of criminal and administrative cases for holding them without such a permission.