Flaws in court treatment of ‘foreign agent’ cases

The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights has appealed to the Supreme Court requesting that they examine the practice of enforcing the law on “foreign agents”

Moscow 14 July 2015

The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights believes that since the amendments to the law on “foreign agents” have been delayed, in order to minimize any damage caused through enforcing the law, it is necessary to make adjustments to the judicial practice.

The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights has appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting that a study on the judicial practice of enforcing the law on “foreign agents” be included in the plan of work for the plenum of the court. The Presidential Council highlighted that almost all cases involving the forced inclusion of NGOs on the “foreign agents” register have led to litigation. Many of these trials showed the professional legal community and civil society that there are serious flaws in the mechanism of legal regulation.

‘The continuing legal uncertainty of such concepts such as “political activity”, “receipt of funds” and so on, as well as the lack of a unified approach to their interpretation not only gave rise to numerous contradictions in law enforcement but also in many cases left the decision to the discretion of the Ministry of Justice, Prosector’s Office and ultimately the courts,” Mikhail Fedotov, Chairman of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights said in a statement to the Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev.

The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights emphasises that the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the case regarding the verification of the constitutionality of the law on “foreign agents” means that the shortcomings of both the law and its enforcement practices cannot be corrected. “Since the corrections of the flaws in legislation on NGOs have been delayed, it becomes more and more important to minimize the damage by correcting the judicial practice and ensuring its uniformity,” the President of the Council summed up. The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights expressed its readiness to contribute to the process of the compilation and analysis of the application of the law on “foreign agents” in court.

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the law on “foreign agents” requires additional adjustments but he stressed that the institution of “agents” was created “not by accident and not in vain.”

Author: Grigory Ivanushkin

http://www.asi.org.ru/news/spch-obratilsya-k-verhovnomu-sudu-s-prosboj-izuchit-pravoprimenitelnuyu-praktiku-zakona-ob-inostrannyh-agentah/

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