The Dutch House of Representatives, the lower house of the Dutch Parliament, adopted a motion calling on the government to work with like-minded partners to bring an interstate case against Georgia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), citing the Georgian government’s use of “repressive legislation” and “police violence” against demonstrators, among others.
The motion, submitted by MP Queeny Rajkowski from People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), calls for invoking Article 33 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which allows one state party that is a party to the Convention to bring a case against another before the ECtHR over alleged violations of rights protected by the Convention.
“The House of Representatives, having heard the deliberations, noting that the Georgian authorities are employing repressive legislation and police violence against peaceful demonstrators; considering that these developments form part of a pattern in which Georgia is drifting towards the Russian model […] requests the government, together with like-minded partners, to lodge an inter-state application against Georgia,” the motion reads.
The motion is not binding for the Dutch government, and the parliament portal also indicates that the government representatives have opposed the motion and advised rejecting it.
The motion also refers to the similar appeal on CoE member states in the June resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
“The Assembly reiterates its call to the relevant bodies of the Council of Europe to use all available means, including those under Article 52 of the ECHR, and its invitation to all Council of Europe member States to consider the use of interstate applications to the ECtHR under Article 33 of the Convention, to ensure that Georgia fully honour all the standards and obligations stemming from Council of Europe membership,” the document said, adding that it “regrets that to date, no use has been made of these mechanisms offered by the ECHR.”
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