“ECHR ruled clearly in favor of Georgia and found Russia responsible for violating multiple articles of the European Convention of Human Rights,” the US Embassy in Georgia released a statement on the ECHR judgment in the interstate Georgia v. Russia 2008 August War case.

“In the state-to-state case of Georgia v. Russia on the 2008 Russia-Georgia War, the Court ruled clearly in favor of Georgia and found Russia responsible for violating multiple articles of the European Convention of Human Rights, including by detaining and torturing individuals, and denying Georgian citizens the right to return to their homes.

The court further found the Russian government has not conducted a full or adequate investigation into the events that took place during and after the hostilities.

The Court’s ruling adds further weight to the international community’s demand that Russia cease its blatant violations of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia’s attempts to control and exploit the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia through borderization, arbitrary detentions, restrictions of movement across the administrative boundary lines, and establishment of socio-economic and military “agreements” between Russia and the two Georgian regions are particularly concerning and unacceptable.

These actions threaten the lives, culture, and personal freedoms of people living in these Georgian territories, and deny them the ability to exercise rights and access opportunities that should be available to all Georgian citizens,” reads the statement.

On January 21, the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered its judgment in the inter-State case of Georgia v. Russia (II) concerning the August War 2008. The ECHR confirmed Russia violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights during the August War. The recognition of these violations proves Russia carried out Georgians’ ethnic cleansing during the August war.