Complaints against Georgia at Strasbourg Court drop by 70%
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The number of complaints against Georgia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dropped by 70 percent.
Latest statistics revealed a significant reduction in the number of complaints against Georgia in the past three years.
There were 375 complaints against Georgia in 2010; 395 in 2011; 367 in 2012, and a significant reduction in 2013, with only 157 complaints heard in the Strasbourg Court.
According to the figures, 82 percent of all complaints against Georgia reviewed in the ECHR, between 1959 and 2010, concerned violations in the prison system, which included ill treatment (24%), right of liberty and security (21%), right to a fair trial (16%), protection of properties (10%) and other violations of basic human rights (29%).
Chart of subject-matter of violation judgments.
Georgia’s Government responded to the information release and said the low 2013 number was a result of reforms carried out in the country’s penitentiary system.
Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani said the Government was proud there were fewer complaints at the Strasbourg Court. She said in the past, the Court discussed ten to 20 Georgian prisoners’ complaints each day, but now this number was much less.
Tsulukiani is qualified to make this statement as in 2006 she was a member of the ECHR Committee.
She said the Government was recommended to go to jail to see the prisoners’ conditions and ensure all inmates had medicine and surgery if needed.
"Today, I emphasize, any such complaints are not included in the Strasbourg Court,” the Minister said.
Deputy of Penitentiary and Probation Minister Archil Talakvadze said Georgia’s prison system had undergone a significant reform and the situation was better than in the past.
"Last year the judicial system improved – we have abolished collective principle of sentences, through which a punishment coupled to each other. There were torture, inhuman treatment and health and human rights violations,” Talakvadze added.
"Now, with the situation improved in prisons, the number of cases sent to the Strasbourg Court is 70 percent down compared with the previous three years,” he claimed.
Human Rights protectors and members of non-governmental organisations disagree with the Government’s statement. UN Commission on Human Rights representative in Georgia, Beso Bokhashvili, agreed the number of complaints made against Georgia to the European Court had reduced but said the statistics were not overly encouraging, when the Strasbourg Court overall had considered about 99 000 cases.
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Record low for cases lodged against Georgia in 2016
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