Georgian NGOs file claims against Russia to Strasbourg

Two Georgian human rights NGOs - "Article 42 of the Constitution" and Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia - have filed complaints to the European Court on Human Rights on behalf of the peaceful citizens who suffered from the conflict of Georgia with the Russian Federation.

Let us note here that in January 2009 the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg awarded priority to seven claims versus Georgia, received from residents of South Ossetia and a Russian Army soldier. The claims lodged by residents of South Ossetia against Georgia were basically on violations of the rights to life, property, medical aid, and also against inhuman treatment nationality-motivated discrimination.

The Association of Young Lawyers of Georgia has sent complaints to the European Court on Human Rights on 49 cases, which concern the fate of 340 peaceful citizens, who had suffered in the course of the warfare.

"The point is in violations of the right to life, right to property, prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment. Particular cases are united together in our applications," Tamar Khidasheli, chair of the Association of Young Lawyers, stated on February 12, having added that illegal detentions had mass character.

"Part of the victims had suffered from cruelty and inhuman treatment. Destruction of property had mass character. The houses of most of the residents of the Bolshaya and Malaya Liakhva Gorges were completely burnt down," the IA "News-Georgia" quotes Ms Khidasheli as saying.

The NGO named "Article 42 of the Constitution" also asks the European court to consider in the priority way the claim concerning the death of journalists Giorgiy Chikhladze and Alexander Klimchuk in the city of Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, as the "Georgia Times" reports.