Yesterday in the Prosecutor’s Office there was a meeting devoted to the problem of public activities (assemblies, rallies, demonstrations, pickets, etc.). Besides prosecutors of all Nizhny Novgorod districts, among the participants there were officials from the Directorate of the Interior, city administration, representatives of regional political and non-governmental organizations.   

During the discussion NGO representatives mentioned certain situations when the authorities unlawfully prohibited public activities, transferred the activity to deserted places,  and law enforcement agents were to vigorous in suppressing unauthorized actions.

It was underlined that due to the economic crisis some social tensions may arise and public activity may increase. In its turn, this might influence the decision-making policy and make measures taken to suppress certain activities, either human rights or political, planned or spontaneous, more reasonable and proportionate.  Special attention was paid to the fact that some measures and decisions taken by the authorities recently clearly contradicted the international law, and in particular, ECtHR judgments.

At the end of the meeting NGO representatives expressed their wishes targeted at establishing constructive dialogue between the city administration and the Prosecutor’s Office, on the one hand, and NGOs, on the other hand.