Dagestani residents file a lawsuit to ECtHR about Irganai HPP

In their complaint filed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), residents of Dagestan claim that Russian federal officials acted ineffectively and failed to resolve the issue on compensation for the lands flooded because of the Irganai hydroelectric power plant (HPP).

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that residents of Dagestan villages, caught in the flooded zone due to the commissioning of the Irganai HPP, have not been able to receive their compensation for 12 years.

Lawyers of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* lodged a complaint to the ECtHR on behalf of 12 complainants who were dissatisfied with the fact that the compensation had not yet been paid. The responsible federal and regional departments have only been in correspondence for more than ten years now, and the courts have not been able to identify the defendant for the obligations, which, according to the lawyers, is a violation of Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as Article 6 of the mentioned Convention, which guarantee the protection of property rights and the right to a fair trial.

* The organization is included by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Russia in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 18, 2021 at 06:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.