CoE uses term ‘Russian-occupation’ in regards to Georgian occupied regions
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said that the latest document by CoE on the Russia-Georgia conflict is ‘unprecedented.’ Photo: Getty Images.
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For the first time the Council of Europe has used the term ‘occupation’ in regards to Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali in its eighth document on the Russian-Georgian conflict.
In the document, the CoE welcomed the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case Georgia v. Russia that ‘established the responsibility of Russia for grave human rights violations during the period of occupation of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali following the August 2008 war, as the state exercising effective control over those regions’.
Georgian FM David Zalkaliani has stated that the document is ‘unprecedented and of the utmost importance’ because the term ‘occupation’ has been used for the first time on the executive level of international organisations.
????????MFA welcomes t/@coe CM's 8th decision on "T/CoE & Conflict in????????". It defines????????'s responsibility of occupying???????? regions of #Abkhazia & #Tskhinvali. It expresses concern over severe violation of #humanrights on t/ground & impunity around t/death of victims of t/occupation regime.
— MFA of Georgia (@MFAgovge) May 12, 2021
The document also said that Russia continues to install razor and barbed wire fences and other artificial obstacles along the occupation line, divide families and communities, violate human rights and fundamental freedoms and impede the settlement of the conflict.
According to the document, the closure of so-called crossing points between the occupied regions and the rest of Georgia amid the pandemic further complicated the severe humanitarian situation on the ground.
CoE expressed ‘grave concern’ over the illegal detention of Georgian citizen Zaza Gakheladze by occupation forces, as well as over impunity concerning the deaths of Georgian IDPs David Basharuli, Giga Otkhozoria, Archil Tatunashvili and Irakli Kvaratskhelia.
Today’s @coe decision welcomes @ECHR_CEDH judgment that established RUS responsibility for violations during the period of #occupation
— Shalva Tsiskarashvili (@tsiskarashvili) May 12, 2021
The decision reiterates support for #Georgia’s ???????? sovereignty, territorial integrity & calls upon RUS ???????? to fulfill the 2008 Ceasefire Agrmt pic.twitter.com/WvlI9AO7CR
CoE has called upon Russia, ‘which exercise effective control’ over Georgian occupied regions, to:
- Create conditions for the voluntary, safe and dignified return of all IDPs and refugees.
- Cease any form of ethnic discrimination towards the residents of the Georgian regions.
- Remove any obstacles to ending impunity in cases concerning the murder of ethnic Georgians in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.
- Immediately cease policies leading to human rights violations in both regions of Georgia;
- Remove any impediment, restriction or limitation to the right to freedom of movement across occupation lines, including for medical and educational purposes.
- Cease arbitrary detentions of persons, including in the context of so-called “illegal border crossing” and to re-open “crossing points.”
- Immediately release Gakheladze and all other illegal detainees;
- Cease violations of the right to education in schools and preschools, including education in the native Georgian language in both Georgian regions;
- Prevent further deterioration of monuments belonging to the cultural heritage throughout Georgia’s regions;
- Execute the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case Georgia v. Russian Federation (II).