Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that would allow Russia the option to not comply with rulings made by international human rights courts.
The law, which was published by the Russian government, means that Russia’s high court can overthrow decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which is based in Strasburg. The signing of the bill by Putin allows to the court to review the rulings of the international human rights court and declare them as ‘non-executable’ if it is judged as contradictory to the constitution in Russia.
The ECHR is plays an integral role in the forum of human rights and receives thousands of cases alone from Russia every year. Because of this Russia has lost a number of cases at the Strasbourg institute and have been order to pay out large sums of compensation in certain instances.
According to to The Independent via The Moscow Times:
Legal and political analysts in Russia have suggested the new bill may be aimed at relieving the Kremlin of its obligation to pay out €1.9 billion to Yukos Oil Company shareholders following a 2014 ECHR judgement…
Human Rights Watch have warned the new bill “could have wide spread consequences” pointing out that last week the ECHR gave out a a ruling which found Russia’s surveillance regulations were lacking in acceptable security against abuse.
It’s also worth noting that Russia still have many more cases pending with the ECHR, where it will go from here, since the bills approval remains to be seen.
[Via The Independent]
