Russia's Supreme Court Moves to Drop ECHR References, Pivoting Guidance to U.N. Covenant

Overview

• The Plenum presented a draft that recognizes as void its 2013 guidance on applying the ECHR and removes references to the Convention, ECtHR practice, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, and CPT reports from more than two dozen Plenum rulings.
• The proposal replaces those citations with provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and updates language to reflect Russian law while keeping most existing interpretations on rights safeguards.
• Chairman Igor Krasnov said excluding ECHR references should not reduce citizens’ legal protection, highlighting standards such as timely trials and prohibitions on torture and degrading treatment.
• The draft directs courts to rely on specific ICCPR articles, including Articles 2, 7, 9, 10, and 14 for detention conditions and fair trial guarantees, with Article 17 used on privacy issues.
• In media and defamation guidance the Plenum cites ICCPR Article 19 on free expression with permissible restrictions and removes the earlier note advising greater latitude for satire.