ECHR unanimously accepts Georgia's application on rights violations by Russian occupation forces
The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday admitted Georgia’s lawsuit against Russia. Photo: CoE
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The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday deemed Georgia’s application against Russia on alleged deterioration of the human rights situation along the administrative boundary line between the Government-controlled territory and its Russian-occupied territories as admissible.
The court said it was Georgia’s fourth application against Russia, lodged by the Georgian Government in August 2018, and noted the judgment on its merits would be the next stage.
In the application, the Georgian Government alleged that forces under the control of Russia - which declared the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) as independent states after its 2008 conflict with Georgia - have been engaged in harassment, unlawful arrests and detentions, assaults, torture, killing and intimidation of ethnic Georgians who have attempted to cross the line or have lived next to it, since 2009.
Inter-state case Georgia v. Russia (IV) declared admissiblehttps://t.co/5aLofxjx7T#ECHR #CEDH #ECHRpress pic.twitter.com/kovf93D0fY
— ECHR CEDH (@ECHR_CEDH) April 20, 2023
The Georgian authorities also alleged Russia had failed to conduct a European Convention-compliant investigation into unlawful arrests and deaths of three Georgian citizens in the occupied territories - Archil Tatunashvili, Giga Otkhozoria and David Basharuli.
The court said it had the jurisdiction to deal with alleged violations adjacent to the ABL as they took place before Russia’s exit from the European Convention in September 2022, but noted it would consider the three individual cases as alleged illustrations of such practices as they had already been the subject of three pending individual applications.
The court also agreed that no events that had occurred before 2009 - or before the start of the process of so-called “borderisation”- could be taken into consideration.
The ECHR noted that along with three other applications lodged by Georgia against Russia over the years, it had also received almost 250 individual applications against Russia, Georgia or both states related to the 2008 conflict or the process of borderisation.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze last year said the country had won all 3,300 complaints filed with the ECHR against Georgia following the 2008 war over potential violations and crimes committed during the conflict.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Wednesday commemorated Archil Tatunashvili, a retired servicemember who was tortured and killed by Russian-controlled occupation forces in the country’s occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region on this day in 2018.
Georgia has won all 3,300 complaints filed against it following the 2008 war with Russia to the European Court of Human Rights over potential violations and crimes committed during the conflict, Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said on Friday.
Otkhozoria was trying to transport food into the breakaway Abkhazia region for a funeral ceremony for his late aunt on May 19, 2016, when so-called border guards demanded he pay in exchange for being allowed to transport the goods, which caused a dispute.
The 84th meeting of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) has been held in Ergneti, in the village within Georgia’s eastern occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region.
Irakli Kadagishvili, the Chair of the Rules and Procedural Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, on Thursday said the country’s authorities were in “constant legal battle” to ensure human rights protection in the Russian-occupied territories of the country.
The Georgian Justice Ministry on Thursday said the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to admit Georgia’s application against Russia on the alleged deterioration of the human rights situation along the administrative boundary line “once again confirmed” that Russia was responsible for mass violations against Georgian citizens.
The Georgian Justice Ministry on Friday highlighted “another historic victory” of the country against Russia in a European Court of Human Rights case related to the 2008 war between the two states, after the ECHR ordered the Russian Government to pay up to €130 million for the benefit of 24,000 Georgian citizens affected during the war.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Wednesday called on the Georgian Government to convene a Security Council meeting and discuss imposing a visa requirement for Russian citizens, after the Russian President on Wednesday announced his Government was revoking visas for Georgian nationals.
The leaders of the Council of Europe on Thursday expressed their “profound concern” about Russia’s non-execution of judgments in two rulings by the European Court of Human Rights against the country and in favour of Georgia.
Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Friday told the Parliament that Georgia had won all 3,300 cases filed at the European Court of Human Rights related to the 2008 war and Russia’s intervention into the country.