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CoE Report Says “Lack of Legislative Reform” in Georgia

According to the 16th annual report of the CoE Committee of Ministers “Supervision of the Execution of Judgments and Decisions of the ECHR 2022”, published on 6 April 2023, Georgia has lack of progress in further legislative reforms to strengthen the external independence of the Prosecutor’s Office and there is a lack of protection by state authorities against the inhuman and degrading treatment of LGBTI activists by private individuals.

The Committee also expresses “profound concern” over the developments leading to the dissolution of the former State Inspector’s Service and calls on the authorities to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of ill-treatment investigations.

The report states that the Committee of Ministers received 10 cases against Georgia for the supervision of their execution in 2022 (compared to 12 in 2021 and 13 in 2020). According to the report as of December 21, 2022, Georgia had 68 cases pending execution (compared to 63 in 2021 and 53 in 2020), of which six were leading cases (cases identified as revealing new structural and/or systemic problems, requiring of new general measures to prevent similar violations in the future) classified under the enhanced procedure (supervision procedure for cases requiring urgent individual measures, pilot judgments, and judgments revealing important structural and/or complex problems as identified by the Court) and 21 were leading cases classified under the standard procedure.

The full payment by Georgia of the just satisfaction awarded by the Court was registered in nine cases in 2022, while confirmation of full payment and/or default interests was awaited in two cases for which the deadline set in the Court’s judgment had elapsed for more than six months.

The pending caseload includes cases and groups of cases related to ill-treatment, hate crimes, and domestic violence, as well as ineffective investigations into them, restrictions on the right to liberty and security, violations of the freedom of assembly and religion, and the right to a fair trial. The report also highlights a number of high-profile cases.

Merabishvili vs Georgia – the case falls under the Report’s “Article” 18” cases concerning abusing limitations of rights and freedoms”. The report says that the Committee continued the examination of the case. During the last examination in March 2022, “the Committee regretted the lack of progress on legislative reforms for strengthening the external independence of the prosecutor’s office and the individual independence of prosecutors” and strongly urged the authorities to rapidly provide concrete proposals for amendments as recommended by Venice Commission.

Two other cases specifically mentioned in the report under “Systemic, structural or complex problems and advances are:

Tsintsabadze group vs Georgia – the Committee re-examined the case, “expressing profound concern over the developments resulting in the dissolution of the former State Inspector’s Service and calling on the authorities to provide information on legislative and other measures envisaged to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of ill-treatment investigations”. It also called upon authorities to improve the legislation and/or practice on granting victim status, as well as on reviewing decisions terminating investigations or refusing initiation of prosecutions.

Identoba and Others group vs Georgia – which mainly concerns the lack of protection by State authorities against inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted by private individuals against LGBTI activists, the Committee repeatedly urged the authorities to convey unambiguous zero-tolerance message at the highest level towards all forms of discrimination and hate crimes, in particular against LGBTI persons. Referring to 2021 and previous marches, the Committee called on authorities to ensure effective investigations to identify and punish those responsible for the mentioned acts. The Committee also “called for establishing a specialized investigative unit to define any other tangible institutional measures to improve the effectiveness of investigations and sanctioning”. The Committee also requested the Georgian authorities to rectify the draft National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights 2022-2030 “which does not adequately address the needs of the LGBTI community”.

The report and its recommendations are particularly noteworthy in the light of the 12 EU conditions for EU candidate status, which include areas such as reform of the judicial system and strengthening of human rights protection.

One of the main challenges highlighted by the Committee in its work in 2022 was the fact that, following its expulsion from the Council of Europe, the Russian Federation ceased to participate in the system of monitoring the execution of judgments, although it remains obliged to execute the judgments of the Court. This has implications for Georgia, as there are currently pending two inter-state cases brought by Georgia against Russia. Georgia v. Russia case (I) concerns the arrest, detention and expulsion from the Russian Federation of a large number of Georgian nationals between the end of September 2006 and the end of January 2007; and Georgia v. Russia case (II) case concerns various violations of the Convention in the context of Russia-Georgia war in August 2008.

In particular, in the case relating to the arrest and expulsion of Georgian nationals from the Russian Federation, the Court ruled that Russia should pay monetary compensation to the Georgian State, which would in turn identify the victims for the purpose of transferring the compensation, but this decision was never implemented following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and refusal to comply with its obligations under the judgment. The report states that the it “deeply deplored that the Russian authorities despite the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding on 17 December 2021 to enable payment of the just satisfaction to take place through a Council of Europe bank account held in escrow, had not made payment of the funds by the end of 2022…”.

As for the case related to the 2008 war, the report reads that the Committee adopted an interim resolution urging the Russian authorities to submit a comprehensive action plan to thoroughly and promptly investigate the serious crimes committed during the active phase of hostilities, as well as during the period of occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, identify all those responsible and bring the perpetrators to justice. Furthermore, the report reads, that the Committee firmly reiterated its insistence that the Russian Federation, which has effective control over those regions, ensure without delay safe return of persons wishing to return to their homes.

According to the press-release preceding the issuing of the annual report from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on the execution of ECHR judgments, 1,459 new cases were transferred by the European Court to the Committee of Ministers, which supervises their implementation by member states, in 2022. The report shows that 2,352 (38%) of the cases pending at the end of last year concerned the Russian Federation, which was excluded from the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022 due to its aggression against Ukraine.

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