Information Note on the Court’s case-law 237

February 2020

Oleynik v. Russia (communicated case) - 4086/18

Article 14

Discrimination

Homosexual denied employment by private company: communicated

After a job interview, Ms P, a person in charge of an educational project in a private foundation, confirmed that the foundation was willing to hire the applicant as a training manager. Then the y continued to correspond via a social network. Ms P asked the applicant if he was gay, and specified that the foundation “adheres to traditional views” and that it would not hire a homosexual person. As the applicant confirmed that he was gay, she put an end to the conversation. The applicant received an e-mail from Ms P confirming that he could not be employed by the foundation. No explicit reasons were given for the refusal to employ the applicant.

The applicant brought a civil claim against the foundati on, claiming that he had been denied employment on discriminatory grounds. He provided to the court copies, certified by a public notary, of his conversations with Ms P, together with a screenshot of the foundation’s home webpage, where Ms P was listed as a person in charge of an educational project. The foundation submitted, without providing any evidence, that Ms P had never worked for it.

The domestic courts concluded that no infringement of the applicant’s rights could be established.

The applicant com plains that his denial of employment was of a discriminatory nature and that the domestic courts did not answer his arguments in this respect.

Communicated under Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 and under Article 6 of the Convention.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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