The law was condemned by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (of which Russia is a member), by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and by human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The Kremlin's backing of the law appealed to the Russian nationalist far-right. This definition includes materials that "raises interest in" such relationships, cause minors to "form non-traditional sexual predispositions", or " distorted ideas about the equal social value of traditional and non-traditional sexual relationships." Businesses and organizations can also be forced to temporarily cease operations if convicted under the law, and foreigners may be arrested and detained for up to 15 days then deported, or fined up to 5,000 rubles and deported.
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The statute amended the country's child protection law and the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses, to prohibit the distribution of " propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" among minors. The Russian government's stated purpose for the law is to protect children from being exposed to homosexuality-content presenting homosexuality as being a norm in society-under the argument that it contradicts traditional family values. Watch the Euronews Tonight report in the video player above.The Russian federal law " for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values," also referred to in English-language media as the gay propaganda law and the anti-gay law, is a bill that was unanimously approved by the State Duma on 11 June 2013 (with just one MP abstaining- Ilya Ponomarev), and was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on 30 June 2013. In an act of defiance, clubs in Berlin, Wolfsburg, Augsburg, Frankfurt and Cologne said they would light up their venues during the final group game.
Michael Roth, Germany's European affairs ministers, and Bavarian governor Markus Söder regretted UEFA's decision. UEFA said it understands the intentions behind the proposal but it "must decline this request" because of its political context. As Germany prepares to play against Hungary on Wednesday evening, the city council of Munich filled an application before UEFA to have its stadium filled with the rainbow colours from the LGBT+ flag. The controversy around the Hungarian legislation has spilled over into the 2020 UEFA European Championship.
Jourová said the European Commission could launch an infringement procedure against Hungary over the new anti-LGBT law if it deems the text breaches EU law. We need to continue this procedure because we still see the systematic issues both in Hungary and Poland." "We consider the rule of law as a fundament of European democracy, so too much is at stake. "The situation is not going in the right direction, in the Commission's view," Vice-President Jourová said ahead of the gathering. Tuesday's Council meeting was also attended by Vĕra Jourová, the EU Commission's vice-president responsible for values and transparency. Secretary Zacarias said the mechanism has now been "reactivated" and member states had the opportunity to pose questions and demand explanations to the ministers of both countries. The last hearings on the issue took place in 2018 for Poland and in 2019 for Hungary. Hungary and Poland have formed a coalition to prevent each other's procedure from advancing any further. Seen as a nuclear option, Article 7 remains virtually stalled because, in order to suspend rights, a unanimous vote inside the European Council (excluding the accused country) is required. Prime Minister Orbán has repeatedly promoted an alternative ideology to the Western creed known as "illiberal democracy". NGO Freedom House no longer considers Hungary as a democracy and instead describes the country as a "hybrid regime" due to a "precipitous" decline in democratic quality.
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Both countries are accused of democratic backsliding as a result of a series of legal reforms that their right-wing governments have launched in the past years. As of today, the last-resort procedure is active against Hungary and Poland over concerns related to the rule of law.