Feedback In October 2013 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated an appeal presented by lawyer Dmitry Bartenev in the interests of Moldovan citizen, Mr. Kh., who is infected with HIV and was deprived of the right to join his family in Russia. The court has communicated this case together with several similar cases and confirmed that the problem described in the appeal is of systematic nature.
Mr. Kh., a citizen of Moldova, has contacted ADC “Memorial” regarding an appeal of the decision, which had banned him from entering Russia based on the fact that he had contracted HIV. Since 2005 he was married to a Russian citizen and they had two children in this marriage, who are Russian citizens. The claimant lived in Russia until 2008. On August 1, 2008, following discovery that he had contracted HIV, Federal migration service (FMS) made a decision on undesirability of his stay in Russia and he was forced to leave the country within three days under the threat of deportation.
Since August 4, 2008 the claimant lives in Transnistrian Moldavian Republic without the possibility of seeing his wife and children, who live in Russia. He is denied the possibility of raising his children and living together with his family. All attempts to appeal this decision in Russian courts, which quoted the position of ECHR in a similar case of “Kiyutin vs. Russia” and stated that the ban on entry to the country based on having HIV infection is discriminatory, has not resulted in overruling of this decision. Constitutional court of the Russian Federation has confirmed the existence of the problem when considering this case, but declined to offer its systematic resolution.
As it was stated by the lawyer in the appeal to ECHR “decision on the undesirability of the claimant’s stay in the Russian Federation was made based solely on the fact that a person is infected with HIV… This decision is in effect for life, because the law doesn’t provide for possible further overruling of such a decision… The claimant believes that the Russian authorities have violated Articles 8 and 14 of the Convention, because the decision on undesirability of stay was based solely on the fact that a person is infected with HIV in spite of the person’s marital status in Russia, as a result of that he was forced to leave Russia and doesn’t have the possibility to remain in touch with his family”.