Civil.Ge — Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) will make monitoring of the issue known as "the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia" as part of regular ongoing monitoring of broader obligations undertaken by the both countries before the Council of Europe.
The decision, taken by PACE’s Monitoring Committee last week, means that obligations originating from three resolutions passed by the Assembly since October, 2008 will still stand, but monitoring of those obligations would no longer be carried out separately, but instead would become part of ongoing monitoring procedures for both these countries.
According to the same decision, the co-rapporteurs for Georgia and Russia, under the responsibility and coordination of the PACE Monitoring Committee chairman, will present a joint “information note” to the Committee on an annual basis. This information note should outline conflict-related developments and co-rapporteurs' findings about the implementation of obligations originating from the Assembly’s August war-related resolutions.
Information note, according to the Monitoring Committee’s decision, will be discussed by the Committee in a specific sitting.
Last year when a similar proposal to redirect monitoring of the August war-related obligations to respective countries’ regular monitoring procedures was strongly opposed by the Georgian delegation in the PACE; the proposal was perceived by the Georgian lawmakers as an attempt to downgrade the issue. This time, however, Georgian delegation welcomed the decision saying that the most important outcome was that the Russia’s obligations will still stand and monitored, including through specific sitting of the PACE Monitoring Committee.
The decision of the PACE Monitoring Committee was also welcomed by the members of the Russian delegation.
The issue known as “the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia” has been debated time after time in PACE since October, 2008, when the Assembly adopted a resolution on the consequences of the war, which, among other things, also calls on Russia to withdraw its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Two other resolutions were taken by PACE since then on the same issue – one in January, 2009 and another one in September, 2009. This latter resolution was calling on Russia to fulfil obligations under the resolution by the end of 2009.
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