The Human Right Priority considers that several articles of the European Convention and international humanitarian norms have been violated towards the victim.
“Despite the fact that Georgia was unable to conduct effective control in the conflict zone, the case could have been avoided if the Georgian government warned the local population about the threats and had evacuated them”- the advocates explain. According to the applicant organization, the Russian Federation is responsible because the Russian Federation has experienced an effective control over the villages of Gori since August 11 or 12, 2008 and they did not ensure public order. That’s why applicants put direct responsibility of the Russian Federation as well.
This is a first fact when a woman victim of sexual abuse, who is a Gori resident, finally decided to appeal to the ECHR. NGOs consider this fact as a step forward and keep hope that it might encourage other victimized women to speak out about their rights as well.
“This the only case of sexual violence since the war in Abkhazia and the August war that has been sent to the ECHR. There were lots of cases during Abkhazian war that time and now as well, but none of the victims agreed to appeal. This woman is an exception”- says Lia Mukhashavria, the head of the Human Rights Priority.
The victim, whose anonymity is ensured, has already passed the psychosocial rehabilitation. She agreed the Georgian prosecution to investigate the case but according Lia Mukhashavria, nobody was interested in it.
“She does not know the nationality of the perpetrator but she can identify him. However, Prosecutor’s Office did nothing despite our correspondence. So, we considered that it’s time to appeal to Strasburg.”
Most of the victimized women avoid to speak about sexual violence. That’s why human rights organizations do not have exact statistics on the mentioned crime. The approximate number of different kind of sexual abuse is about 20 to 30 cases. Lia Mukhashavria explains that period of limitation does not apply to these cases and people suffering from this kind of trauma can appeal to the ECHR even after five years.
According to Lela Tsiskarishvili, the head of GCRT, it was impossible to find out the real number of sexually abused women during the August war: “The reason for that was that they refrained to talk about it. There are only several approved facts. GCRT worked with one of them, another one just refused to have any contacts and went to the monastery”.
