The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Russia must pay more than 253 million euros to Georgia for human rights violations caused by the so-called “strengthening of the demarcation line” after the 2008 war.
The court ruled in the case Georgia v. Russia (IV) in April 2024, and on 14 October specified the amount of compensation.
The ECHR recalled that it had found systematic violations of the European Convention on Human Rights on the part of Russia. These include excessive use of force, torture and ill-treatment, unlawful detention, restriction of freedom of movement and access to homes, land and families, and a ban on education in the Georgian language.
Compensation has been awarded to over 29,000 victims.
The Court noted that the Georgian government must, within 18 months of receiving payments from Russia, establish an effective mechanism for distributing compensation to the victims.
The ECtHR also noted that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe continues to supervise the implementation of the court’s judgements against Russia. Under Article 46 (binding force and enforcement of judgments), Russia is still obliged to implement judgments for events that occurred before 16 September 2022, the date on which it ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, the Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that they will not comply with ECtHR judgments issued after 16 March 2022.
The Georgian Ministry of Justice commented on the ECHR judgement. The ministry congratulated the Georgian people on the “historic victory”, calling the judgement “a logical continuation of the historic cases won by Georgia against Russia”.
The lawsuit was filed by Georgia with the ECHR on 21 August 2018. It referred to “mass oppression of the Georgian population” as well as “administrative practices of detentions, attacks and killings” in the territories uncontrolled by the central government and along the administrative borders with them. This referred in particular to the deaths of Archil Tatunashvili, Gigi Otkhozoria and David Basharuli.