Suprun and Others v. Russia became one of the key international cases on access to Soviet-era archival materials.
The applicants included relatives of people subjected to repression, researchers, and the human-rights organisation International Memorial. Russian archives systematically refused to provide materials (information about those repressed and about individuals responsible for the repression), citing restricted access rules and personal data protection.
I represented the applicants both in domestic proceedings and before the European Court of Human Rights.
The ECtHR found that the refusal of access to archival materials violated the right to respect for private and family life and hindered the establishment of the fate of the applicants’ repressed relatives. The Court stressed that the state must ensure genuine access to historically significant archives when the subject concerns repression and mass human-rights violations.
This case became an important reference point for archival disputes relating to the Soviet past and is used as guidance in subsequent cases on access to archival information.
