FIFTH SECTIONCASE OF SELYGENENKO AND OTHERS v. UKRAINE(Applications nos. 24919/16 and 28658/16) JUDGMENT Art 1 P12 • Prohibition of discrimination • Discriminatory refusal to allow applicants to participate in local elections at their place of their actual residence in which they were registered as internally displaced persons (IDPs) • Applicants as IDPs in a significantly different situation from citizens living at their registered places and other mobile population groups who could return to their registered places of residence to vote in local elections there • Failure to treat applicants differently, given the non-voluntary nature of their move, by making an exception to the election residence rule • Applicants’ inability to participate in their new communities’ local affairs during the enforced absence from their permanent homes albeit such participation being an important element of IDPs’ integration STRASBOURG21 October 2021 FINAL 21/01/2022 This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.In the case of Selygenenko and Others v. Ukraine,The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of: Síofra O’Leary, President, Mārtiņš Mits, Ganna Yudkivska, Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, Ivana Jelić, Arnfinn Bårdsen, Mattias Guyomar, judges,and Victor Soloveytchik, Section Registrar,Having regard to:the applications (nos. 24919/16 and 28658/16) against Ukraine lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by four Ukrainian nationals, Ms Oleksandra Vyacheslavivna Selygenenko, Ms Anastasiya Romanivna Martynovska, Ms Darya Oleksandrvna Svyrydova and Ms Yevgeniya Oleksandrivna Terekhova (“the applicants”), on 23 April 2016 (the first three applicants) and 14 May 2016 (Ms Terekhova), respectively;the decision to give notice to the Ukrainian Government (“the Government”) of the applications;the parties’ observations;Having deliberated in private on 28 September 2021,Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:INTRODUCTION1. The applicants complained under Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the Convention that they had not been allowed to participate in local elections at the place of their actual residence, in which they were registered as internally displaced persons (IDPs).THE FACTS2. Details about the applicants are indicated in the appended table. They live in Kyiv. Ms Terekhova, who was granted legal aid, was represented by Ms V. P. Lebid and Mr M. O. Tarakhkalo, lawyers from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Kyiv. The other three applicants were represented by Mr S.A. Zayets, a lawyer from the Regional Centre for Human Rights, Kyiv, and Mr. J. Evans and Mr K. Levine, lawyers from the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, London.3. The Government were represented by their Agent, Mr I. Lishchyna, from the Ministry of Justice.4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.5. The applicants had lived respectively in Crimea and Donetsk and had had their registered places of residence there. After Crimea came under de facto Russian jurisdiction and the conflict in Eastern Ukraine started (hereinafter - events of 2014), all four applicants moved to Kyiv and registered there as IDPs on various dates in 2014 and 2015 (see the appended table for individual details) and were issued with IDP certificates. All of them maintained that their respective registered places of residence continued to be located in Crimea and Donetsk, as was indicated in their “internal passports” (identity documents for use in Ukraine – hereafter “passports”), while their IDP certificates indicated that the place of their actual residence was in fact Kyiv.6. They all lodged applications to be included in the lists of voters who would participate in local elections in Kyiv scheduled to take place in October-November 2015, but their applications were dismissed on the grounds that their respective registered places of residence were not in Kyiv but elsewhere.7. On 25 October 2015 one of the applicants, Ms Terekhova, lodged a complaint with the Central Electoral Commission. She alleged, inter alia, that her right to vote had been violated, given the fact that, because she was an IDP, she had not been allowed to participate in local elections.8. The Central Electoral Commission replied that under section 3 of the Local Election Act, a person’s place of residence for the purposes of voting in local elections was to be determined according to the registered place of residence, as indicated in the person’s passport. It furthermore noted that elections on the territories that were outside the Government’s control could be conducted only after the regaining of such control and the restoration of constitutional order on those territories; as soon as Parliament decided to conduct elections there, Ms Terekhova would be able to realise her right to vote in local elections.9. All four applicants lodged administrative claims with their respective local courts in Kyiv seeking to oblige the respective electoral commissions to include them in the voters’ lists for the local elections. On various dates the first-instance courts dismissed the applicants’ claims, and those decisions were upheld on appeal by the Kyiv City Court of Appeal (for all relevant dates and names of the relevant institutions see the appended table).10. All the applicants in their administrative claims submitted that they had been forced to move to Kyiv from their respective registered places of residence because of the events of 2014. In Kyiv they were registered as IDPs, and on their IDP certificates their places of actual residence were indicated as being located in Kyiv. The applicants noted that they had a right to vote in the upcoming elections as they met all the criteria set forth in Article 70 of the Constitution. They also considered that since they resided in Kyiv (as confirmed by their IDP certificates) they “belonged” to the respective territorial communities there. They pointed to the provisions of the Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Internally Displaced Persons Act, which guaranteed them the right to participate in free elections – including local elections (see paragraph 24 below).11. The first-instance courts, with reference to the domestic legislation described below, reiterated that the right to vote in local elections in Ukraine was conferred on citizens of Ukraine who “belonged” to their respective local communities and who resided within their respective voting constituencies. A person’s residence within his local constituency and “belonging” (належність) to his respective community was confirmed by his registered place of residence, as indicated in his passport. The courts noted that everyone enjoyed the right to freedom of movement and of choice of residence but was required by law to register at any new place of residence, with that new information to be recorded in one’s passport. As to IDPs, their temporary place of residence was indicated in their respective IDP certificates, but without that residence having to be registered in their passports. Under the Local Elections Act (see relevant provisions in paragraphs 14 and 15 below), persons who were not in the constituency of their electoral address on the day of elections could not participate in local elections. The applicants had their registered places of residence as being, respectively, in Crimea and Donetsk and had their electoral addresses there. Therefore, they could not participate in local elections in Kyiv.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 1
Outcome: violation