The Council of Europe’s main decision-making body, the Committee of Ministers has deeply deplored the lack of response of the Russian authorities to the Committee of Minister’s earlier appeals to implement the Georgia v. Russia judgement from the European Court of Human Rights concerning the arrest, detention and collective expulsion of 1,500 Georgian nationals in 2006-2007. It again exhorted the Russian authorities to pay the just satisfaction, 10 million Euros, awarded to the Georgian Government.

In an Interim Resolution published on September 23, 2022, the Committee of Ministers recalled that despite ceasing to be a member of the Council of Europe on March 16, 2022, the Russian Federation is still required to implement judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, and the Committee of Ministers continues to supervise their execution. The Committee deeply deplored that no information was provided by the Russian authorities.

In its 2019 judgement on just satisfaction, the European Court of Human Rights determined that Russia was to pay the Georgian government, within three months, 10 million Euros, in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by a group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals. The European Court of Human Rights also ruled that the Georgian government was to set up an effective mechanism for the distribution of the money to the individual victims.

At its latest meeting to supervise the implementation of judgements, the Committee of Ministers again reiterated its profound concern that the payment has not been made, more than three years after the deadline expired.

The Committee firmly reiterated that the payment of just satisfaction awarded by the Court is an unconditional obligation. “Delay in fulfilling this obligation deprives the individual victims of the violations from receiving compensation for the damages suffered by them”, the Committee stressed.

It again exhorted the Russian authorities to pay the just satisfaction, together with the default interest accrued, without any further delay.
The Committee once again invited the authorities of the Council of Europe member states to explore all possible means to ensure the execution of this case and instructed the Secretariat to come up with proposals for a strategy for supervising the execution of pending cases against the Russian Federation. The Committee will resume consideration of this case at their next meeting on execution of the ECHR judgements in December 2022.

The Committee of Ministers has also adopted a decision on the execution of the judgement in the case Georgia v. Russia, which has become final in October 2021 and concerned various violations in the context of the armed conflict between Georgia and the Russian Federation in August 2008.

Case description:

The case concerns the arrest, detention and expulsion from the Russian Federation of large numbers of Georgian nationals from the end of September 2006 until the end of January 2007. In its principal judgement, the Court found that, from October 2006, a coordinated policy of arresting, detaining and expelling Georgian nationals, amounting to an administrative practice, had been implemented in the Russian Federation.

This practice led the European Court of Human Rights to find six violations concerning:

• The expulsion of Georgian nationals without a reasonable and objective examination of the particular case of each individual (Article 4 of Protocol No.4);
• Arbitrary arrests and detentions of the Georgian nationals (Article 5 § 1 and 13);
• The absence of effective and accessible remedies available to Georgian nationals against the arrest, detention and expulsion orders (Article 5 § 4);
• Inhuman and degrading conditions of detention in police stations and detentions centres for foreigners and a lack of effective remedy regarding the same (Article 3 and 13).
• The Court also found that the Russian authorities had failed to comply with their obligation to furnish all necessary facilities to the Court in its task of establishing the facts of the case (Violations of Article 38)

In its just satisfaction judgement of 31 January 2019, the Grand Chamber held that, within three months, the Russian Federation was to pay the Government of Georgia 10 million Euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by the group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals, who were the individual victims of the violations. The Court indicated that these amounts should be distributed by the Government of Georgia to the individual victims under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers within 18 months.

Status of Execution of the Judgement:

At its examination at the 1428th meeting (March 2022), the Committee of Ministers adopted an interim resolution in which it noted that the Russian authorities had signed the memorandum of Understand (to enable the payment of the just satisfaction held in escrow) on 17 December 2021 and deeply deplored that, despite the signature, the Russian authorities had not made the payment of the funds by the end of 2021 as previously indicated. It also firmly reiterated its insistence on the unconditional obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the European Convention of Human Rights to pay the just satisfaction awarded by the Court and stressed that delay in fulfilling this obligation deprives the individual victims of the violations from receiving compensation for the damages suffered by them.

At its examination at the 1436th meeting (June 2022), the Committee of Ministers adopted another interim resolution in which it furthermore deeply deplored that the Russian authorities had not provided any updated information about the process of payment for the meeting, despite their unconditional obligation and their signature of the Memorandum of Understanding. It further exhorted the Russia authorities to pay the just satisfaction, together with the default interest accrued without any further delay and invited authorities of the Member states to explore all possible means to ensure execution of the present case.

The Russian authorities have not provided any information in response to the above interim resolution.