International Court of Justice in the Hague Dismisses Georgia’s Case Against Russia

Russia Troops in Georgia (telegraph.co.uk)

International Court of Justice has dismissed the complaint formulated by Georgia against Russia, by saying it had no jurisdiction over the case. Georgia was accusing Russia of abuses in the breakaway territories.

According to the court in Hague, there was no evidence that Russia and Georgia had held talks in an attempt to solve the situation, although the two countries claimed the contrary.

Georgia filed a complaint against Russia as a result of the five-year war in August 2008, when Russia occupied Georgia and remained in the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recognized by Russia alone as independent republics, following the Kosovo case, in the aftermath of the conflict.

Protest in Tbilisi (wn.com)

Georgia pretends that thousands of Georgian nationals have been killed in the conflict by Russian forces while hundreds of thousands have been displaced over decades.

The small Caucasian country accuses Russia of breaking an anti-discrimination treaty from 1965 and of conducting a serious policy of ethnic discrimination.

The vote on the matter was cast on Friday and the lack of jurisdiction was adopted with 10 votes to six.

Russia welcomed the decision made by international court, saying that this is exactly what it had been demonstrating to the court.

Russia urged that the case be dismissed on the ground that the attack in 2008 was sparked by Georgia.

Georgia based its case on the fact that the court had jurisdiction over the cases that involve discrimination. It was argued that the jurisdiction of the court over this kind of cases does cover only the situations where the two countries tried to make peace through negotiations and failed.