Georgia
ENTRY INTO FORCE of the European Convention on Human Rights
20 May 1999
Number of implemented cases*
77
Examples
Protections against the arbitrary exclusion of voters in elections
The European Court of Human Rights found that Georgia breached a political party’s right to stand for election by disenfranchising 60,000 voters it might have relied upon for support. The court’s judgment in the Georgian Labour Party’s case led Georgia to change its election law, setting out clear criteria which must be met for the electoral authorities to annul results.
Georgia
Tbilisi residents affected by power plant pollution win landmark case
A power plant was allowed to carry out dangerous industrial activities just metres from the apartment block where Ivane Jugheli, Otar Gureshidze and Liana Alavidze lived in Tbilisi. The European court criticised the Georgian Government’s failure to protect the residents from the resulting pollution, which breached their rights. This judgment led Georgia to strengthen its environmental laws.
Justice for the victims of Soviet oppression
Klaus and Yuri Kiladze were eleven and nine years old when their father was killed by the Soviet authorities. Their mother was then sent to a gulag, their family apartment was seized and they were taken into abusive State custody. Decades later, a Georgian law was passed establishing a right to compensation for victims of Soviet oppression. Yet the national courts still denied them justice.
Greater protections for free speech after journalist sued for reporting on alleged political corruption
In July 2000 Ilnar Gorelishvili wrote an article about a politician who owned various expensive properties. She questioned how he had bought these whilst working in public service on a moderate salary. The politician sued her for defamation and won. The European court ruled that Georgian law had not properly protected Ilnar's right to give her opinion.
* This figure includes all judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (including friendly settlements) concerning which the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has decided that all necessary follow-up measures have been taken. Source: the database of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, HUDOC-EXEC.