At the end of August, the coalition of Russian LGBT organisations submitted a report on the LGBT situation in Russia, to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The report details topics such as discrimination in the workplace, hate crimes targeting certain sexual orientations and gender identities, discrimination against transgender individuals, and the lack of HIV prevention programs in gay and transgender communities. The report was prepared by a coalition of five Russian non-governmental organisations, namely Russian LGBT Network, LGBT Group “Coming Out”, the Transgender Legal Defense Project, NGO “Phoenix Plus”, and the Moscow LGBT-Initiative group “Stimul”.
At the end of July, Elena Klimova, the founder of the project "Children-404", supporting LGBT teenagers, filed a third complaint with ECHR. At the instigation of the Barnaul prosecutor's office, the information posted on the project's website was banned by the court decision from dissemination in Russia. Having applied to all legal authorities to no avail, including the Supreme Court of Russia, Klimova appealed to ECHR.
In July 2017 the Pervomaiskii District Court dismissed Yulia Kudryashova's appeal against "SB-Eurasia" LLC, who refused to produce a gift shampoo with rainbow symbols on the label. The LLC in question officially stated that the reason behind their refusal was the so-called “anti-propaganda law”. However, the Court didn’t take into account the discriminatory underpinnings of the refusal when making its decision. Kudrayshova’s attorney filed a cassation appeal.
Recently various media outlets published information on LGBT people who fled persecution in the Chechen Republic and found sanctuary in Canada. The Russian LGBT Network has warned its counterparts that revealing detailed information on the exact location of the victims might be harmful. Yet this information became available through multiple sources. The information, presented in the recent media coverage of the Chechnya crisis, was not approved by all the parties involved in the relocation of the victims.
