Council of Europe to Review Human Rights Court Decisions
STRASBOURG, France – Representatives of the 47-member Council of Europe will review a series of decisions handed down by the European Court of Human Rights and later decide on specific measures aimed at implementing the court’s recommendations, the council announced on its official Web site.
The decisions pertain to several cases that took place in Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics.
Cases in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Lithuania and Russia mainly concern incidents involving racial or sexual discrimination, torture, extrajudicial punishment and exposure to extreme duress while in custody.
Georgian officials will be keen to pay attention to the court case revolving around the illegal arrest, detention and expulsion of large numbers of Georgian nationals from the Russian Federation in October 2006-January 2007.
The actions came at a time when relations between Tbilisi and Moscow were at a then-all time low after Russia banned Georgian products that included the country’s two main exports, mineral water and wine.
In a recent report the council found that Russia ranks first in the size of its prison population, far outpacing other European states with 467 inmates per 100,000 people.
Russia had a total of 671,000 prisoners serving five to 10 years on average in 2015.
The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 as a framework tasked with protecting human rights and the rule of law as well as promoting democracy throughout Europe and western Asia.
Georgia became the 41st member of the council on 27 April 1999.