II. RELEVANTDOMESTIC LAW

A. Constitution

30. Article 15 (Chapter 1) of the Russian Constitution of 12 December 1993 provides:

“1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation shall have supreme legal force and direct effect and shall be applicable within the entire territory of the Russian Federation. Statutes and other legal instruments adopted in the Russian Federation shall not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

...

4. Generallyrecognised principles and norms of international law and international treaties and agreements of the Russian Federation shall be a component part of its legal system. If an international treaty or agreement of the Russian Federation establishes other rules than those envisaged by the [domestic] law, the rules of the international treaty or agreement shall be applicable.”

31. Article 32 (Chapter 2) of the Constitution provides:

“...

2. Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to elect and to be elected to bodies of state governance and bodies of local self-government, as well as to take part in a referendum.

3. ...citizens detained in a detention facilitypursuant to a sentence imposed by acourt shall not have the right to voteor to stand for election.

...”.

32. Article 33 (Chapter 2) of the Constitution reads as follows:

“Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to appeal in person and make individual and collective appeals to State bodies andlocal bodies of self-government”.

33. Article 134 (Chapter 9) of the Constitution reads as follows:

“Proposals on amendments to and revision of the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation may be submitted by the President of the Russian Federation, the FederationCouncil, the State Duma, the Government of the Russian Federation, legislative (representative) bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and by groups of deputies numbering no less than one fifth of the total number of deputies of the Federation Council or of the State Duma”.

34. Article 135 (Chapter 9) of the Constitution provides:

“1. The provisions of Chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation may not be revised by the Federal Assembly.

2. Where a proposal to revise any provisions in Chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is supported by threefifths of the total number of deputies of the Federation Council and the State Duma, a Constitutional Assembly shall be convened in accordance with a federal constitutional law.

3. The Constitutional Assembly may either confirm the inviolability of the Constitution of the Russian Federation or draw up a new draft of the Constitution of the Russian Federation which shall be adopted by twothirds of the total number of deputies to the Constitutional Assembly or submitted to a nationwide vote. In the event of a nationwide vote, the Constitution of the Russian Federation shall be considered as adopted if more than half of those voting have voted for it, provided that more than half of the electorate have taken part in the voting.”

B. Other legal instruments

35. The provisions of Article 32 § 3 of the Constitution are reproduced in section 4(3) of the Federal Law of 12 June 2002 on Fundamental Guarantees of Electoral Rights and Eligibility to Participate in a Referendum of the Citizens of the Russian Federation and in section 3(4) of the Federal Law of 10 January 2003 on Presidential Electionsin the Russian Federation.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 749