Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe starts considering issue of Russia's failure to execute ECtHR's decisions in case of civilians' mass deaths in Katyr-Yurt

The session the Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe, which was opened on September 24 in Strasbourg, will consider the issue on returning to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) the case of the mass deaths of people during the bombing of the village of Katyr-Yurt (Chechen Republic) in February 2000.

The proceedings against Russia in connection with its failure to execute the decisions on the case "Isaeva v. Russia" were initiated by the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC, London) and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" (Moscow). The authors of the request concerning the Russia's failure to execute the ECtHR's decisions argue that for seven years, the Russian authorities maliciously fail to execute the court order and fail to conduct an effective investigation into the incident in Katyr-Yurt, despite the fact that starting from 2006, the execution of the decisions on the subject are under control of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This was reported by the press release of the HRC "Memorial", received by the "Caucasian Knot".

In the event if the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe makes a decision to initiate the proceedings of failure to execute the judgment in the case "Isaeva v. Russia", the Russian authorities will be notified of the beginning of the proceedings. They will be given additional six months to conduct effective investigation into the incident in Katyr-Yurt. Six months later, the Committee of Ministers will assess the effectiveness of the new investigation and make a decision to send the case back to the ECtHR or to close the case.

Upon receipt the case "Isaeva v. Russia" from the Committee of Ministers, the ECtHR can declare the Russian Federation responsible for the violation of Article 46 of the Convention on Human Rights and oblige the Russian authorities to take specific steps for the execution of earlier decisions of the ECtHR.

In that regard, the EHRAC and the HRC "Memorial" believe that the initiation of the proceedings of failure to execute the ECtHR's decisions under Article 46 (4) of the Convention is the only potentially effective measure to conduct an objective investigation into the events in Katyr-Yurt in February 2000. According to the human rights defenders, without such investigation, it will impossible to restore the rights of those persons, who suffered in the course of the military operation.