Hunger strike as a "public event" and "static demonstration"
(Dianova v. Russia, no. 21286/15; Zakharova v. Russia, no. 26805/15)
Submitted:
February 22, 2022
Case-law analysis:The Public Events Act provides for legal definitions of the terms "public event" and "static demonstration", while the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation contains Articles 20.2 and 20.2.2 that establish liability for failure to comply with legal procedure of organisation or conduct of public events and other forms of expression occurring in public but not falling within the scope of the Public Events Act respectively. Those Articles, however, seem to apply in such a manner that does not allow to establish what forms of expression can be qualified as a public assembly within the meaning of the Public Events Act and the autonomous meaning of the Convention and what forms of expression, although occurring in public, do not fall within the meaning of a public event or assembly.
Apart from the penal law context, Russian legislation lacks definition of a hunger strike. Russian judicial practice demonstrates, however, that hunger strikes in rather small groups (from 2 to 15 persons) have been prosecuted under Article 20.2 of CAO and, therefore, are regarded as public events/assemblies (static demonstrations) within the meaning of the Public Events Act.
Main questions:(a) Did the applicants' protest action in form of a hunger strike in the open air fall under the definition of a "public event", namely "static demonstration", within the meaning of the Public Events Act?
(b) If so, could the applicants foresee that their hunger strike would be qualified as an assembly rather than a form of expression?
Authors: A. Suchkova, S. Mironova and V. Isakov
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