On November 27, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Alekseyev and Others v. Russia that Russia had violated Article 11 (right to freedom of assembly); Article 13 (right to an effective remedy); and Article 14 (right not to be discriminated against) of the European Convention on Human Rights due to Russian authorities refusal to approve requests to hold LGBT rallies. The case involved fifty-one applications, brought by a number of Russian Nationals, who had all submitted notices of their intent to hold public rallies on LGBT rights and were rejected by the initial local authorities, as well as on appeal in domestic courts. As stated in the press release, the Court found that the decisions to reject the applications “could not be justified by concerns over public disorder and was in breach of their right to freedom of assembly. It also found that the absence of any requirement on the authorities to make a decision on the events prior to the dates on which they were to be held had amounted to an absence of effective remedy. The decision to block the LGBT events had clearly been motivated by the authorities’ disapproval of the theme of the demonstrations, and had thus amounted to discrimination, in violation of Article 14.”