Failure to conduct proper police investigation

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Gharibashvili group v Georgia (Appl. No. 11830/03)

  • Intervention by Nino Jomarjidze, Strategic Litigation Lawyer, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association

  • Action report by the Georgian government

  • Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

This group of six judgments and eleven decisions concerns the lack of effective investigations into allegations of violations of the right to life and of ill-treatment (procedural aspects of Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights). In addition, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found in two cases a substantive violation of Article 3 due to the excessive use of force by the police in the course of the applicants’ arrest and/or in custody. In these cases, the ECtHR concluded that the official investigations lacked the requisite independence and impartiality due to the institutional connection between those implicated and the investigators in charge of the cases.

Nino Jomarjidze, Strategic Litigation Lawyer, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), provided an overview of general measures currently taken by the Georgian authorities.  In her intervention, which can be found here, she particularly highlighted the need to enhance efforts relating to effective investigation into allegations of ill-treatment and the meaningful involvement of victims into investigations. The recent action report of the Georgian authorities of 11 August 2017 can be found here.