Published on 22 November 2021

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 51966/20 Andrey Aleksandrovich LUKYANENKO against Russia and 3 other applications (see list appended) communicated on 3 November 2021

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASES

The applications concern disputes between the divorced applicants and their ex-wives regarding their common children’s place of residence. In each of the cases domestic courts found in favour of the children’s mothers referring to Principle 6 of the United Nations 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which provides that a child of tender years should not, save in exceptional circumstances, be separated from his or her mother. According to the courts, no “exceptional circumstances” warranting the separation of the children from their mothers were shown by the applicants.

The final judgments in the disputes in applications nos. 259/21, 24092/21 and 51966/20 were delivered by the Supreme Court of Russia on 8 September, 16 and 21 October 2020 respectively.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Has there been a violation of the applicants’ right to respect for their family life, contrary to Article 8 of the Convention? Did the domestic courts give sufficient reasons for their decisions to give the residence orders to the mothers of the applicants’ children? In particular, did they conduct an in‑depth examination of the entire family situation and a whole series of relevant factors, in particular factors of a factual, emotional, psychological, material and medical nature, and did they make a balanced and reasonable assessment of the respective interests of each person, with a constant concern for determining what the best solution would be for the children (see Petrov and X v. Russia , no. 23608/16, §§ 98-100, 23 October 2018, with further references)?

2. Did each of the applicants exhaust effective domestic remedies, as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention, in respect of their complaints of discrimination? If so, has there been a violation of Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 8 on account of the applicants’ discrimination on the ground of their male sex?

APPENDIX

No.

Application no.

Case name

Lodged on

Applicant Year of Birth Place of Residence

Represented by

51966/20

Lukyanenko v. Russia

08/11/2020

Andrey Aleksandrovich LUKYANENKO 1980 Khabarovsk

-

259/21

Skvortsov v. Russia

24/11/2020

Yegor Sergeyevich SKVORTSOV 1983 Yarovoye

K. TEREKHOV

24092/21

Kurlikovskiy v. Russia

16/04/2021

Maksim Viktorovich KURLIKOVSKIY 1985 Yekaterinburg

-