In St. Petersburg on 8 December the first ‘32 May’ human rights film festival opened. It will run until 12 December. Each day of the festival will be dedicated to an important human rights issue.

As noted by St. Petersburg.ru, on the eve of the film festival the organizers - Youth Human Rights Group and the Russian Social Democratic Youth Union - expressed outrage at the attitude to the event of the Committee on Law, Order and Security of St. Petersburg City Hall.

A statement by the Film Festival’s organizing committee says:

 

‘In a telephone conversation with Evgeny Konovalov, the chair of the Russian Social Democratic Youth Union, a Committee representative said that the organizers had blemished their reputation when they included in the list of supporting organizations representatives of the LGBT community. When the Committee’s representative learned that they were invited to a debate on the issue of ‘freedom of assembly’ he said that he himself would never attend such a discussion. It was also said that the organizations holding the Festival were also questionable, and those who supported them were simply a collection of any and all, whereas a strict selection process should have been used.

We believe that such evaluative statements by the Committee on Law with regard to any groups of people are unacceptable, particularly in relation to representatives of the LGBT community, as well as contempt for a number of NGOs.’ 

At present, the Committee on Law, Order and Security has yet to respond whether its representatives will take part in the debate held in the framework of the Film Festival. The organizers, for their part, consider that a dialogue between civil society and the St Petersburg city authorities will take place.

All the Film Festival's events will take place at the Green Light Press Club, 3, Gagarin Street. Admission is free.