Source: hro.org (info), 24/02/11

· Right of Assembly · Human Rights Defenders · Voronezh Region · Moscow Region and Moscow City

A group of young civic activists has created a website to assist those wanting to realize their constitutional right to peaceful, public assembly.



The website is called Article20 after Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.”

The website contains examples of documents and court decisions in specific cases that will help those who wish to protect the right to freedom of assembly. A step-by-step approach is used in presentation of the materials:

Step 1. Do you want to hold a public assembly?
Step 2. Did you receive a proposal to change the place, time or form of the assembly?
Step 3. Was the assembly broken up?
Step 4. Did the police formally register an alleged violation by you?
Step 5. Were you detained?

Editors of Article20 are: Aleksei Kozlov, Natalia Zvyagina, Viktoria Gromova, Olga Gnezdilova, Sergei Fedulov, Sergei Sabanov, Yulia Alyatina. The group’s experts are: Nikolai Zboroshenko, Denis Shadrin, Sergei Davidis.

Article20 intends to issue its own press releases. This is because, in the view of the creators of the new website, many publications in the media are not sufficiently well informed about the specific features of the law governing public assemblies.