03/06/2015 Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Gay Pride rallies remind us that discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity has no place in democratic societies,” Jonas Gunnarsson (Sweden, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBT people, said today, following the arrest in Moscow on 30 May and subsequent sentencing on 2 June to 10 days' imprisonment of prominent Russian gay activist Nikolai Alekseyev.
“It is deeply disappointing that authorisation to hold a Gay Pride rally in Moscow was again refused this year, despite a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in 2010 finding that such a refusal was discriminatory and in violation of the freedom of assembly,” he said. “This judgment must be implemented in practice. Moreover, laws prohibiting so-called ‘homosexual propaganda’, which are sometimes used as a pretext for prohibiting Gay Pride events, are also discriminatory and should be done away with immediately.”