The European Court of Human Rights may oblige the air carriers to carry disabled persons without special conditions

The advocates questioned by RAPSI on Wednesday believe that only the European Court of Human Rights is able to oblige the Russian air companies to carry wheelchair-bound or bedridden passengers, no matter whether or not the aircraft is respectively equipped.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on Wednesday dismissed the claim by the Consumers’ Rights Protection Society “Public Control in Action”, which contested the provision of Air Transportation Rules, which, according to the claimant, permits the air companies to arbitrarily refuse to carry wheelchair-bound disabled persons.

According to Tamilla Sakvarelidze, a member of the Moscow Bar Association “Nikolaev and Partners”, the Society should contest the ruling by the Supreme Court of Russia, and if the cassation instance dismisses the claim – go to Strasbourg.

T.Sakvarelidze pointed out: “While the Russian laws remain as they are, the situation of the disabled persons will not improve. The human rights activists should keep contesting the Russian rules of air transportation, and to go to the European Court of Human Rights if needed. Naturally, the air carriers do not want to equip their planes with seats for the disabled thus reducing the number of seats for other passengers, even if they infringe upon the rights of the consumers – and the disabled are consumers too. That is why court practice should be increased in order to make the lawmakers to introduce the changes needed by the disabled persons”.

Advocate Nina Belozertseva, Head of Healthcare and Pharmaceutics Group of Goltsblat BLP, also believes that the disabled persons’ rights are infringed upon because they are not legally fixed.

She says: “We have not created any conditions for the disabled – not only in planes but also in intermunicipal buses, and only in a part of city buses”.

According to N.Belozertseva, the legislation should contain the obligation for every company to create conditions for the disabled, and to grant them permission to conduct activity only under that condition.

The advocate is convinced: “For example, each pharmacy must have a ramp of access for wheelchairs. If there is none, the license matter comes up. In exactly the same way, the fixed route taxis were obliged to reserve one seat for a disabled person – the issuance of the work permit was thus conditioned. That is the only way for the state to influence the business. Currently there are no obligations, nobody respects the rights of the disabled and the diseased, who are unable to walk on their own”.

Advocate Tatiana Starikova, Head of Private Clients Practice of the Law Firm "YUST", agreed with the colleague. She is of the opinion that the lawmakers will have to consider and adopt amendments not only to the respective provisions of the Air Transportation Rules, but also to the provisions of the Air Code of Russia in connection with the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by Russia, which occurred in May of 2012.

The advocate said: “There is no doubt that certain legislative and normative acts urgently require amending. Including the part of facilitating for the disabled persons the access to transport, to other objects and services, which are open or granted to the population”.

According to T.Starikova, the Consumers’ Rights Protection Society should first present its remarks and suggestions to the Federal Agency of Air Transport in order to eliminate the discriminatory provisions of the normative acts, which regulate air transportation.

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