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Strasbourg court, Russia, and lost property in Abkhazia
The European Court of Human Rights has concluded its examination of six lawsuits regarding property rights violations in Abkhazia, holding Russia fully responsible in all cases.
The case, Taganova and Others v. Georgia and Russia, concerns real estate that applicants were forced to abandon or could not access following the outbreak of hostilities in the early 1990s.
Russia is ordered to pay each claimant between €25,000 and €35,000.
The European Court of Human Rights was petitioned by two Russian citizens – Galina Taganova and Tariel Esartia, and four Georgian citizens: Ketevan Mekhuzla, Ksenia Sanaia, Suliko Dvali, and Marina Gogua.
Their years of birth range from 1914 to 1960. Several applicants are registered as internally displaced persons in Georgia.
The Court reiterated that Abkhazia was territory over which Russia had de facto control. It found in particular that the applicants had had homes in Abkhazia. However, they had not had effective domestic remedies available to them either in Georgia or in Russia to secure access to those properties.
“Owing to Russia’s control over the territory and its lack of efforts to secure property rights, in particular for Georgian citizens, it found Russia alone responsible for the continuing violations related to property in this case,” the statement reads.
The Court decided that it had jurisdiction to deal with the case, as the facts giving rise to the alleged violations of the Convention had taken place before 16 September 2022, the date on which Russia ceased to be a party to the European Convention.
“Thirty years after the ceasefire agreement of 1994, displaced people, including the applicants, were still not able to return to the region. This amounted to an interference with the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions. They had been objectively unable to return to their properties, certainly not safely, as was clear from the conclusions in particular of a number of international sources.
The Court held that Georgia had made sufficient efforts to re-establish State control over the territory, mentioning in particular the 2008 Law on Occupied Territories, which had voided all real-estate transactions carried out in contravention of Georgian law and reiterated property rights in the occupied territories.
Conversely, the Russian Government – which exercised effective control over Abkhazia – did not justify the interference with the applicants’ property rights. They should have taken steps to protect those rights, such as providing an easily accessible and flexible legal mechanism. They had failed to do so,” the statement reads.
The court also ordered the Russian Center for Human Rights to pay €18,000 in legal costs for all the claims combined.
