MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Russia hopes the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will cancel its ruling on Russia’s Dima Yakovlev Law after considering Russia’s appeal, Russian foreign ministry’s envoy for human rights, democracy and the supremacy of the law, Konstantin Dolgov, told TASS on Tuesday.
"Naturally, we will challenge it. Let us hope that while considering the appeal the judges will take into account our argument and will cancel this ruling," he said.
He said the court ruling ignores the position of the Russian side and stressed that what had pushed Russian lawmakers towards adopting the Dima Yakovlev Law is still in place. "The Americans have been doing nothing and are doing nothing to remove the problems they have created as far as adoption of Russian children is concerned," Dolgov said.
"Obviously, adoption of any laws is a sovereign competence of our country, our parliament," the Russian diplomat noted. "Any interference into this process must be out of the question."
Earlier on Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Russia’s Dima Yakovlev Law, which took effect four years ago, violated the rights of potential adoptive parents from the US and ordered Moscow to pay compensations to them.
The judges came to a conclusion that the law violates Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and that Russia should pay 3,000 euros in compensations to each of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit and also $600 for legal expenses.
The lawsuit was filed jointly by 45 US citizens who wanted to adopt Russian children. After the Dima Yakovlev Law was passed, the adoption procedures were halted.
Russia’s lawmakers passed the so-called Dima Yakovlev Law that took effect in January 2013 banning US citizens from adopting children in Russia. The legislation is named after a child from northwest Russia's Pskov region who died of heat stroke four months after being adopted by a US couple when his adoptive father left him in a parked car for nine hours.
The Dima Yakovlev Law is considered to be a response to the Magnitsky Act adopted by the US Congress in December 2012, placing sanctions on a number of Russian officials.