Having considered administrative judgment of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, the Presninskiy District Court of Moscow City remedied housing rights of K. belonging to the category of orphans. The decision of the Moscow Interdepartmental Commission to refuse to provide K. with housing recognised as unlawful. The case will be reconsidered.

In March 2016, citizen K., born in Yakutia and orphaned in early age, petitioned the High Commissioner. She reported that she had been brought up in the family of her guardian (her aunt) in Moscow Region since 1992. In 2002, K. and the guardian bought a room in a communal flat with living square of 14 square metres. Since 2007, K. has been permanently living in the room with her aunt and child born in 2015. Previously, K. had had alternate registration of residency at one moment in Moscow Region, at another in Moscow.

In order to improve her living conditions, K. appealed to the Interdepartmental Commission of Moscow City with a request to provide her with housing. The Commission refused to give her an apartment having reasoned that Moscow was not her residency since she had once been registered in Moscow Region.

The High Commissioner examined the case together with the prosecutor’s offices of Moscow Region and Moscow City, concluded that the Commission’s decision failed to comply with the federal legislation and legislative acts of Moscow City, and filed and administrative lawsuit to the Presninskiy District Court of Moscow City.

The Court granted the judgement, found the Commission’s decision unlawful, and obligeв the Commission to reconsider the issue of providing K. with housing. The High Commissioner’s arguments that registration of residency as well as the lack of it cannot be the reason for restricting rights and freedoms were fully taken into account by the Court.