CCPR/C/139/D/2925/2017 on a judicial or administrative decision or practice.5 The dissolution of the organization has impaired the authors’ rights. It limited their right to jointly profess and disseminate their faith (actual impairment) and now exposes them to criminal liability for continuing their peaceful religious activity (imminent impairment).6 5.3 Regarding the failure to exhaust domestic remedies, the authors submit that the remedy under article 323 (4) of the Code of Administrative Judicial Procedure was not available to them. Article 323 (4) is available in cases where the Supreme Court is sitting as a third or fourth instance court. In does not apply in cases where it is the court of appeal, that is, a second instance court. In such cases, the supervisory appeal must be filed before the Presidium of the Supreme Court, pursuant to article 332 of the Code, which is what the authors did. 5.4 The authors refer to the Committee’s jurisprudence to confirm their claim that the supervisory review is an “extraordinary remedy” that does not need to be exhausted for the purpose of admissibility.7 They also submit that the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld domestic decisions on the dissolution of local religious organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses as “extremist organizations” based on a misapplication of the vague wording of the Federal Act on Combating Extremist Activity to the peaceful religious activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They claim that there is no prospect of success for any further appeal. Nevertheless, they did file a supervisory appeal to the Presidium of the Supreme Court, which was rejected on 27 December 2016. State party’s observations on the merits 6.1 On 3 August 2017, the State party submitted its observations on the merits of the communication. It submits that the decision of the Supreme Court of Kalmykia to dissolve the Elista local religious organization was based on domestic legislation, in particular the Federal Act on Combating Extremist Activity, the provisions of which are in accordance with international standards. According to that law, manifestations of extremist activity include mass distribution of materials known to be of an extremist nature and the production and storage of such materials for mass distribution. On 25 June 2015, during a search of the Elista organization’s premises, officers of the Centre for Combating Extremism discovered books that had already been added to the federal list of extremist materials by court decision. On 11 September 2015, Elista City Court imposed an administrative fine on the Elista organization. On 6 December 2015, during a search conducted by the Centre for Combating Extremism and the Directorate of the Federal Security Bureau of Kalmykia, religious literature that was on the federal list of extremist materials was discovered in an attic of the building belonging to the Elista organization. The authors’ allegations that the books were planted by someone in the building belonging to the Organization were considered by the Supreme Court of Kalmykia, which found that they were not proven by any reliable evidence and that the prosecutor’s request to dissolve the Elista organization must be granted. 6.2 The State party submits that the dissolution of organizations involved in extremist activities derives from State parties’ obligations under international law.8 The Supreme Court of Kalmykia evaluated the proportionality of the interference and found that the materials stored and distributed by the organization “contain statements that abase human dignity based on one’s attitude towards religion and contain elements of propaganda regarding the preeminence of one religion over another; that is, the information in said literature offends religious sensibilities and incites interreligious conflicts and discord, which presents a particular threat to the Russian Federation as a religiously diverse, secular State that 5 6 7 8 GE.24-00304 A.W.P. v. Denmark (CCPR/C/109/D/1879/2009), para. 6.4. The authors refer to two cases that went to domestic courts. In one, a Danish national was arrested on 25 May 2017 for participating in the religious activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Orel, after the dissolution of the Orel local religious organization. In the other case, 16 Jehovah’s Witnesses were convicted for attending religious services after the dissolution of Taganrog local religious organization. Kostenko v. Russian Federation (CCPR/C/115/D/2141/2012), para. 6.3. The State party refers to article 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 20 (2) of the Covenant and article 17 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. 5