Healthcare Within the Barbed Wires - International Legal Inquiry into the Right to Health in Occupied Akhalgori: The Prospects of Responsibility through Human Rights Litigation

Abstract: The humanitarian crises, which suddenly emerged in Akhalgori and claimed the lives of dozens of people, raised questions on the legal responsibility of Georgia and Russia to guarantee timely and adequate healthcare in the district. The uncertainties regarding the state’s obligations were caused by the specific legal status of Akhalgori, which is Georgia’s lost territory beyond its effective control, currently administered by the proxy forces of Russia by the name of the Republic of South Ossetia. The complexity of the case was further increased by the fact that the cause of the humanitarian crises was a deprivation of social and economic rights which requires the state to abstain from violation of the rights in question and to take positive actions to fulfil its obligations under human rights treaties. Therefore, the central question of this thesis is who should accumulate resources to guarantee the right to health in occupied Akhalgori. Furthermore, this thesis examines how the state alleged to have breached relevant human rights can be responsible. Purported violations of the right to health have been studied from the perspectives of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (HRL) in this thesis. The research findings demonstrate that the establishment of the fact of occupation shifts the jurisdiction of Georgia and therefore the responsibility to the occupying power for guaranteeing human rights in Akhalgori, which is under the protection of both IHL and HRL. However, as the thesis has identified, while IHL does not offer any effective human rights protection mechanisms, HRL displays more resources to eliminate the crisis during the occupation. Subsequently, Russia’s responsibilities regarding Akhalgori were primarily assessed through the human rights protection mechanisms. In terms of litigation of the right to health, the thesis has identified that, while arguing the cases concerning social and economic rights is complex in general, it is even more challenging when it comes to occupied territories. However, it has been noticed that the European Court of Human Rights frequently incorporates socio-economic rights and the right to health in its application through the broad interpretations of the conventional rights. This observation brings new perspectives for the victims of the Akhalgori humanitarian crisis: the research revealed that if the European Court of Human Rights resources will be used effectively, the potential that Russia can be held responsible for the violation of the right to healthcare in Akhalgori is tangible.