MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

Notes on the Agenda

CM/Notes/1419/H46-30

2 December 2021

1419^th meeting, 30 November – 2 December 2021 (DH)

Human rights

H46-30 Georgia v. Russia (I) (Application No. 13255/07)

Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments

Reference documents

DH-DD(2021)417, DH-DD(2021)416, DH-DD(2021)129, DH-DD(2020)1093, DH-DD(2020)1023, CM/ResDH(2020)368, CM/Del/Dec(2021)1398/H46-26

Application

Case

Judgment of

Final on

Indicator for the classification

13255/07

GEORGIA v. RUSSIA (I)

03/07/2014

31/01/2019

Grand Chamber

Inter-State case

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 judgment, 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 Court 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 arrests, detentions and expulsion orders (Article 5 § 4);
inhuman and degrading conditions of detention in police stations and detention centres for foreigners and a lack of effective remedy regarding the same (Articles 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 (violation of Article 38).

In its just satisfaction judgment of 31 January 2019, the Grand Chamber held that, within three months, the Russian Federation was to pay the Government of Georgia 10,000,000 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 of the date of the payment or within any other period considered appropriate by the Committee of Ministers.

Status of execution

Payment of the just satisfaction and default interest

For a detailed account of the execution process relating to the payment of just satisfaction and default interest up until 3 November 2021, see the notes prepared for the 1411^th meeting (September 2021) (DH) and the 1416^th meeting (3 November 2021).

At the 1416^th meeting, the Committee considered a compromise proposal for the payment of these sums, reached after extensive consultations between the two States Parties to the case and the Secretariat. The Committee then adopted a decision in which it welcomed the Russian authorities and the Georgian authorities’ recent written confirmation that they accept the terms and conditions and are ready to sign, without delay, the draft Memoranda of Understanding to enable payment to take place through a Council of Europe bank account held in escrow; authorised the Secretary General to sign those Memoranda of Understanding to enable the Council of Europe to receive and hold the funds (the just satisfaction, together with the default interest accrued) in a bank account held in escrow in accordance with the conditions set out in the Memoranda of Understanding; and looked forward to the swift signature of the Memoranda of Understanding by the Russian Federation and Georgia with a view to the payment of these funds by the Russian authorities to the Council of Europe bank account held in escrow and completion of the remaining steps to execute the Court’s judgment as soon as possible.

General measures

The Russian authorities submitted initial information on 22 October 2015 (DH-DD(2015)1114) and an action plan on 17 December 2015 (DH-DD(2015)1383). The Georgian authorities submitted an analysis of the judgment which was circulated on 8 December 2015 (DH-DD(2015)1323).

With regard to general measures, the Russian authorities noted that the European Court established that the administrative practice in question concluded in January 2007. They considered that there is nothing in the judgment, nor are there any subsequent European Court judgments, to indicate that similar violations have taken place since. Furthermore, they explained that, since January 2007, Russian domestic law and practice have been fundamentally reformed to provide adequate safeguards against administrative practice and the collective expulsion of foreign nationals in the future. They indicated that the available statistics show that under the new mechanisms in place, Georgian nationals are treated fairly: in 2014, there were more Georgian nationals who entered the Russian Federation than left (for more detailed information, see the action plan DH-DD(2015)1383). They consider therefore that the current Russian law and practice have established adequate legal and institutional safeguards against the use of administrative practices, inter alia, concerning Georgian nationals, as well as a migration policy in accordance with international standards and the provisions of the European Convention. For a more detailed summary of the information provided by Russia in 2015, see the notes prepared for the 1250^th meeting (March 2016) (DH).

At that meeting, the Committee adopted a decision in which it took note with interest of the detailed information submitted by the Russian authorities regarding, in particular, the developments in the Federal Migration Service, in the supervision carried out by prosecutors and in the practice of the domestic courts since 2007 and invited the Russian authorities to submit further information on the implementation of their action plan and to supplement it with an analysis of how the measures referred to will prevent a similar administrative practice in the future.

The information and analysis requested by the Committee are still awaited from the Russian authorities.

Analysis by the Secretariat

Following the adoption of the Committee’s last decision at its 1416^th meeting (3^rd November 2021), the next expected steps are the signature of the two MOUs by the Secretary General and the Russian Federation and Georgia respectively, followed by the payment by Russia of the just satisfaction and default interest into the Council of Europe escrow account.

The Secretariat hopes to be in a position to inform the Committee of the progress made along these lines.

As regards general measures, the Committee could invite the Russian authorities to provide the information requested by the decision of March 2016, to enable the Secretariat to provide an analysis in time for the Committee’s next examination.

Financing assured: YES