Moscow, September 13: Russia and Georgia appeared in court on Monday in a dispute over whether the United Nations’ highest court can hear charges by Georgia of Russian human rights abuses on its territory.
The hearing is the latest step in a case that dates to August 2008, when Georgia filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice, claiming violations by Russia of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination on Georgian territory.
In its complaint, Georgia alleged violations of various articles of the treaty over an 18-year-period in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The case was filed as the two countries fought a short war over South Ossetia, though Georgia denied the case was directly linked to the conflict.
But the head of legal affairs at Russia’s foreign ministry, representing his country in court at the Peace Palace in The Hague, said in opening statements on Monday that the case was only about the war and not about the treaty.
“It must be emphasised that the application was only launched when it became clear that Georgia’s military venture had failed,” Kirill Gevorgian said. “The other objective of the applicant state was to portray itself as a victim of the conflict that it itself had started.”
Russian troops crushed an assault by Georgian government forces on South Ossetia in August 2008, inflicting heavy damage on the Georgian military. Moscow has since recognised the two areas as independent states, although almost no other countries have followed suit.
In October 2008, the court issued a preliminary ruling, ordering Moscow and Tbilisi to refrain from committing or supporting any racial discrimination in the disputed regions or in nearby Georgian territory.
In December 2009, Russia filed an objection to the court’s jurisdiction, freezing the case and setting in motion the legal back-and-forth that prompted this week’s hearings.
Moscow argues that the court has no jurisdiction to hear the case because there was no ongoing dispute between the two countries under the treaty before the case was filed, as the convention explicitly requires.
“As of the date when the application was filed there was no dispute between Georgia and Russia over ethnic discrimination against the ethnic Georgian population of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Roman Kolodkin, Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, told the court.
“This is a case where quantity does not pass in for quality. The documents on which Georgia relies either do not relate to racial discrimination or do not relate to Russia as a responsible party.”
Representatives of the Georgian legal team are expected to offer a reaction to the Russian opening outside of court later Monday before making their formal case before the court’s 16 judges on Tuesday.
The Russian government had no fewer than 23 agents, lawyers and advisors from all over the world listed as appearing on its behalf, while Georgia appeared with 14 people.
—-Agencies