European Human Rights Court Rules Russia’s Ban on Falun Gong Materials Is Illegal

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Feb. 7, 2019. Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

Russia’s ban on materials relating to the spiritual practice Falun Gong is unlawful, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled.

The ECHR stated in its Jan. 31 ruling that Russia’s ban—imposed on four Falun Gong informational materials, including the practice’s main book, “Zhuan Falun”—violated the freedom of expression protection in the European Convention on Human Rights, “interpreted in the light of” the right of religious freedom that’s also in the charter.

The ban was issued in August 2008 at the time of the Beijing Summer Olympics. A district court in Krasnodar in southwestern Russia designated certain materials related to the spiritual practice—“Zhuan Falun”; two pamphlets that introduced the practice and promote a worldwide Olympic torch protest meant to highlight Beijing’s human rights abuses targeting the faith; and an investigative report on the Chinese regime’s state-led forced organ harvesting—as “extremist.”

Forced organ harvesting is part of an expansive persecution campaign, perpetrated since 1999 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that’s aimed at eradicating Falun Gong.

The spiritual practice involves a set of moral teachings explained in “Zhuan Falun,” with truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance as its core principles, as well as five meditative exercises. By 1999, an estimated 70 million to 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong. Viewing the practice’s popularity as a threat to the Party’s power, then-leader Jiang Zemin ordered a brutal nationwide campaign of suppression that continues to today.

A woman signs a petition during a candlelight vigil held by Falun Dafa practitioners in the center of Warsaw, Poland, on Sept. 9, 2022. Mihut Savu/The Epoch Times

The Russian ban on publishing and disseminating the Falun Gong materials “amounts to ‘interference by a public authority’ with the applicants’ right to freedom of expression,” the ECHR ruled, in response to a complaint filed by two Russian nationals, Mikhail Vladimirovich Sinitsyn and Sergey Nikolayevich Alekhin, both of whom are Falun Gong adherents.

The court found that Russian legal authorities, in their 2008 decision and subsequent hearings, didn’t conduct a legal analysis of the publications’ texts and didn’t substantiate the claimed harms of disseminating the materials.

The Russian courts “failed to assess the necessity of banning the publications with regard to the context in which they were published, their nature and wording, and their possible harmful effect,” the Jan. 31 judgment stated.

“Moreover, the courts did not even mention, let alone discuss at any length, the effect of the ban on the applicants’ rights under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention … thus failing to weigh their rights against the public interest,” it added, citing the sections protecting freedom of expression and speech (pdf).

Falun Dafa practitioners carry pictures of the victims of the persecution in China during a march through the center of Warsaw, Poland, on Sept. 9, 2022. Mihut Savu/The Epoch Times

The ECHR ordered Russian authorities to pay the two plaintiffs 7,500 euros ($7,984) each as compensation and a combined 3,096 euros ($3,296) for any costs and expenses related to the case, along with any applicable taxes.

Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe—the continent’s leading human rights watchdog, which includes the ECHR—in mid-March last year amid the Ukraine war and has refused to comply with any of the European human rights court’s judgments issued afterward. It officially ceased being part of the European Convention on Human Rights in September.

However, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers stated that it would consider all applications filed before Russia’s official withdrawal from the human rights body and monitor the implementation of its decisions. The complaint at issue was filed in 2012, well before Russia’s departure.

Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, welcomed the European court decision, adding that he hopes to “remind the Russian authorities that it never works out to collaborate with the CCP.”

“However, we recognize Moscow is not the CCP and still think Russian authorities can right their course and not do the CCP’s bidding in suppressing religious freedom,” he told The Epoch Times.

David Matas, a Canadian human rights lawyer and co-author of the report that was banned by the Russian court, said the ruling reflects the governance model of Russia and China, where citizens are entitled to freedom of speech in name only.

David Matas, Canadian award-winning international human rights lawyer and co-author of “Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China.” Woody Wu/AFP/Getty Images

At the time of the initial Russia court judgment 15 years ago, Matas had wondered why the Russian authorities “would engage in such a travesty,” since the accusation was “so far off the mark.”

“Birds of a feather stick together,” he told The Epoch Times in an email. “What the government of Russia has to offer the government of China is repression in Russia of reports of gross violation of human rights in China,” in particular “the report of the mass killing of practitioners of Falun Gong for their organs.”

While he doubts that Russia will abide by the ruling, Matas described the European court judgment as “a voice of sanity in the face of Russian and Chinese governmental madness.”

“One can only hope that the voice will resonate,” he said.

The restrictive environment in Russia has been a point of U.S. concern. In July 2021, after a Russian court upheld a ban on the Khakassia regional branch of Falun Gong, the State Department issued a statement expressing deep concerns over the act of repression.

“Russian authorities harass, fine, and imprison Falun Gong practitioners for such simple acts as meditating and possessing spiritual texts,” department spokesman Ned Price said. “We urge the Russian government to end its practice of misusing the ‘extremist’ designation as a way to restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“We continue to call on Russia to respect the right of freedom of religion or belief for all, including Falun Gong practitioners and members of other religious minority groups in Russia simply seeking to exercise their beliefs peacefully.”

In Russia, Falun Gong adherents continue to face pressure for adhering to their beliefs.

In November 2022, the city prosecutor’s office in central Russia’s Mezhdurechensk filed a lawsuit seeking to ban several Falun Gong publications. The court ruled in favor of the adherents in December, but prosecutors appealed on Feb. 2. A hearing at the Kemerovo Regional Court is scheduled for March 2.