DECISIONS PUBLISHED: LGBTI persons in Georgia, Georgia v Russia : ECHR judgments examined this week in Strasbourg

The Committee of Ministers has published its decisions on execution of judgments of the European Court. In the decisions on both cases against Georgia, the Committee of Ministers has expressed its concern over the adoption of the legislative package on “Protecting Family Values and Minors”.

Identoba and Others group v. Georgia (Application No. 73235/12)

Decisions

The Deputies

1. recalled that these cases concern mainly violations on account of the lack of protection by state authorities from homophobic or religiously-motivated attacks by private individuals during marches or meetings and in some instances official acquiescence and connivance in these acts, as well as police abuse committed with homophobic/transphobic bias, and the absence of effective investigations into these incidents, including with regard to discriminatory motives;

As regards individual measures

2. strongly urged the authorities to take all outstanding measures in all the renewed investigations with utmost urgency and diligence so as to establish the responsibility of perpetrators; to give due consideration to the Court’s findings while deciding on the qualification of offences and examining bias motive, as well as to grant victim status to all applicants concerned without further delay; further, strongly urged them to promptly bring to completion pending investigations, bearing in mind the risks related to the loss of evidence and prescriptions, and to speed up the criminal trial in the Mikeladze and Others case;
3. urged the authorities to provide detailed information on the progress of investigation in respect of each incident as outlined in the relevant judgments, indicating what investigatory steps can still be or are taken, which ones can no longer be taken for practical or legal reasons, what means are deployed to overcome existing obstacles, and what concrete results are expected to be achieved and within what time limit; as regards the case of Georgian Muslim Relations and Others, invited the authorities to provide also the information whether the first applicant has been enabled to use the boarding school building without any impediment and whether the domestic court decision to connect the school building to the sewerage system has been enforced;

As regards general measures

4. 4.         expressed their deepest concern over the initiation of the draft constitutional law and adoption of the legislative package on “Protecting Family Values and Minors” which restrict freedom of expression and assembly related to LGBTI issues, considered that the enactment of such legislation could raise serious questions as to the compliance by Georgia with its obligation to abide by the final judgments of the Court and strongly urged the authorities not to enact the adopted legislative package and not to proceed with any further legislative steps that would be contrary to the Convention, in particular their obligations in this group of cases, and the Court’s case law;
5. recalling the State’s duty to act as the ultimate guarantor of the principles of equality, pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness, deplored that more than 12 years after the events giving rise to violations in the leading judgment in the Identoba and Others case, LGBTI people in Georgia are still confronted with large-scale hate violence and speech, and are unable to enjoy fully their fundamental right to freedom of assembly;
6. repeatedly and strongly exhorted the authorities to demonstrate a firm commitment towards the fight against hate-motivated violence and impunity by conveying an unambiguous zero-tolerance message at the highest level towards any form of discrimination and hate crime, duly and urgently bringing to justice organizers and instigators of hate violence and taking heightened protection and prevention measures to ensure that the rights to the freedom of assembly and religion are effectively enjoyed by LGBTI people and religious minorities;
7. noted with regret the absence of statistical data on reported hate crime allegations as well as the detailed information on the modalities of operation of the envisaged specialization system the authorities committed to introduce for improving investigation of hate crimes by police; called upon the authorities to provide this information to enable the Committee to further assess whether the measures taken and planned can effectively address the existing concerns related to effectiveness of investigations;
8. decided to resume consideration of this group at the latest at their DH meeting in March 2025and instructed the Secretariat to prepare a draft interim resolution for their consideration, should no tangible progress in the implementation of the Committee’s indications be reported by then.

A.D. and Others v. Georgia (Application No. 57864/17)

Decisions

The Deputies

1. recalled that this case concerns the absence of quick, transparent and accessible procedures for legal gender recognition;

As regards individual measures

2. noted with regret that so far no steps have been taken by the authorities to resolve the first and the third applicants’ individual situation in conformity with their obligations stemming from the European Court’s judgment; emphasizing the need to bring an end to this situation which leaves the applicants in continued and distressing uncertainty, called upon the authorities to take the necessary measures, without delay, to ensure that the change of the applicants’ gender marker can be registered in their official documents;

As regards general measures

3. noted with deep concern the initiation of the draft constitutional law and adoption of the legislative package on “Protecting Family Values and Minors” which would introduce a complete legislative ban on legal gender recognition; considered that the enactment of such legislation could raise serious questions as to the compliance by Georgia with its obligation to abide by the final judgments of the Court and strongly urged the authorities not to enact the adopted legislative package and not to take any further steps that would undermine the full implementation of present judgment;
4. called on the authorities to take the requisite measures to ensure the adoption of a clear legal framework putting in place quick, transparent and accessible procedures for changing gender markers in line with the Convention and the Court’s case-law, and bearing in mind the principles set out in the Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, and the Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 2048 (2015) on discrimination against transgender people in Europe;
5. in the meantime, underlined the importance of ensuring, so far as possible, that the national authorities directly apply the relevant Convention standards in their practice, and encouraged the authorities to take active capacity building action to this end, among others, by drawing inspiration from the measures adopted by other member States in similar cases;
6. invited the authorities, while working on the adoption of the necessary measures to implement the present judgment, to make use of the cooperation activities and expertise available through the Council of Europe; further encouraged them to ensure active involvement of civil society in the development of the relevant legislative framework and policies;
7. invited the authorities to submit an updated action plan, including information on all the above issues, by 20 April 2025 at the latest, and decided to resume consideration of this case at their DH meeting in September 2025 at the latest.

Georgia v. Russia (I) (Application No. 13255/07)

Decisions

The Deputies

1. recalling that although the Russian Federation ceased to be a High Contracting Party to the Convention on 16 September 2022, it remains bound by obligations under the Convention, including to implement judgments of the Court, in accordance with Article 58 of the Convention, recalling further that the Committee of Ministers continues to supervise the execution of the judgments and friendly settlements concerned (Resolution of 22 March 2022 of the Court and Resolution CM/Res(2022)3);
2. recalling that in its judgment on just satisfaction, of 31 January 2019, the European Court of Human Rights held that the respondent State is to pay the applicant government, within three months, EUR 10,000,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by a group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals, and that the applicant government is to set up an effective mechanism for the distribution of the just satisfaction sums to the individual victims of the violations found in the principal judgment while having regard to the indications given by the Court;
3. recalled that, in accordance with the Committee’s decision, in June 2023, the then Chair of the Committee of Ministers made a public statement urging the Russian authorities to heed the Committee’s calls and comply with their unconditional obligations under international law and the Convention to pay the just satisfaction and fully abide by the judgments of the European Court;
4.        deeply deplored again the absence of response of the Russian authorities to their most recent interim resolutions and decisions, despite this public statement and the letters of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation informing him of the decisions and resolutions adopted by the Committee and urging the Russian authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and the Convention to fully abide by the judgments of the European Court; strongly reiterated once again their profoundest concern that the payment of the just satisfaction and default interest accrued has not been made despite the passage of over five years since the deadline for payment expired on 30 April 2019;
5. underlined thatthe default interest continues to accrue on the amount awarded by the Court and that on 17 September 2024, the total amount owed by the Russian Federation was EUR 12 503 972,60;
6. firmly reiterated again their insistence on the unconditional obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to pay the just satisfaction awarded by the Court;
7. stressing once again that delay in fulfilling this obligation deprives the individual victims of the violations from receiving compensation for the damages suffered by them, strongly exhorted once again the Russian authorities to pay the just satisfaction, together with the default interest accrued, without any further delay;
8. in light of the Russian authorities’ reprehensible failure to engage with the supervision process despite their obligation to do so, reiterated again their invitation to the authorities of the member States to explore all possible means to ensure execution of the present case;
9. decided to resume consideration of this case at their DH meeting in September 2025 at the latest.

 Georgia v. Russia (II) (Application No. 38263/08)

Decisions

The Deputies

1. recalling that although the Russian Federation ceased to be a High Contracting Party to the Convention on 16 September 2022, it remains bound by obligations under the Convention, including to implement judgments of the Court, in accordance with Article 58 of the Convention, recalling further that the Committee of Ministers continues to supervise the execution of the judgments and friendly settlements concerned (Resolution of 22 March 2022 of the Court and Resolution CM/Res(2022)3);
2. recalling that in its judgment the European Court established the jurisdiction of Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia during the occupation phase in the context of the armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Georgia in August 2008;
3. recalling further that the Court found the existence of administrative practices contrary to:

–               Articles 2, 3 and 8 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 as regards the killing of civilians, who had been targeted as an ethnic group, and the torching and looting of houses in Georgian villages in South Ossetia and in the “buffer zone”;

–               Article 3 of the Convention as regards the conditions of detention of Georgian civilians by South Ossetian forces in the basement of the “Ministry of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia” and the humiliating acts which had caused them suffering and had to be regarded as inhuman and degrading treatment;

–               Article 5 of the Convention as regards the arbitrary detention of the above Georgian civilians;

–               Article 3 of the Convention as regards the acts of torture in South Ossetia against Georgian prisoners of war;

–               Article 2 of Protocol No. 4 as regards the inability of Georgian nationals to return to their respective homes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia;

as well as a violation of Article 2 of the Convention in its procedural aspect on account of the failure of the Russian Federation to carry out an adequate and effective investigation not only into the events which had occurred after the cessation of hostilities (following the ceasefire agreement of 12 August 2008) but also into the events which had occurred during the active phase of hostilities (8 to 12 August 2008); and a violation of Article 38 of the Convention as regard the failure to furnish all necessary facilities to the European Court in its task of establishing the facts of the case;

4. recalling further that in its judgment on just satisfaction of 28 April 2023, the European Court held that the respondent State is to pay the applicant government, within three months, over EUR 129 million for non-pecuniary damages to different groups of victims in relation to several breaches of the Convention and that these amounts should be distributed by the applicant government to the individual victims under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers within 18 months of the date of the payment or within any other time-limit considered appropriate by the Committee of Ministers;
5. noted with concern that no payment of just satisfaction awarded by the European Court has yet been made while the deadline expired on 28 July 2023 and underlined again that there is an unconditional obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to pay the just satisfaction awarded by the European Court;
6. underlined further that the default interest continues to accrue on the amount awarded by the European Court and that on 17 September 2024, the total amount owed by the Russian Federation was
   EUR 141 183 849,33 and strongly urged the Russian authorities to pay the just satisfaction, together with the default interest accrued, without any further delay;
7. firmly deploring furthermore despite the Committee’s previous indications including in two interim resolutions and several letters of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation informing him of the decisions and resolutions adopted by the Committee and urging the Russian authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and the Convention to fully abide by the judgments of the European Court, the persistent lack of information on the concrete measures taken or envisaged by the respondent State to execute this judgment, with the exception of its dissemination to competent state bodies;
8. firmly reiterating once again, having regard to the scale and nature of the grave violations found, the necessity for the respondent State to take urgent and tangible measures to ensure cessation as well as elimination of the root cause of these violations and to avoid their repetition;
9. exhorted once again the authorities to thoroughly, independently, effectively and promptly investigate the serious crimes committed during the active phase of hostilities as well as during the period of occupation, so as to identify all those responsible for the purposes of bringing the perpetrators to justice;
10. firmly reiterated their deepest concern about the inability of Georgian nationals to return to their homes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and their strong insistence that the Russian Federation, which has effective control over these regions, ensures without delay measures to prevent kidnapping, killing, torture or any other incident which impedes the free and safe movement of Georgian nationals and ensures the safe return of persons wishing to return to their homes;
11. strongly called upon the authorities to provide information on the measures put in place to ensure that similar violations of Article 38 do not occur in the future;
12. decided to resume consideration of the case at their DH meeting in September 2025 at the latest.