ADMINISTRATIVE OFFENCES CODE OF GEORGIA (MADE IN SOVIET UNION) AND THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF HUMANRIGHTS

Abstract

The Code of Administrative Offenses is a legal act adopted during the Soviet era, which is still valid in Georgia 30 years after the restoration of independence. Since its adoption, almost 500 changes have been made to its text, but it has not yet been fully aligned with human rights. The purpose of this article is to present the main problematic issues of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia in the light of the recent practice of the European Court of Human Rights. At the same time, the article will discuss the opinions of the UN Human Rights Committee on administrative offenses.

In the first part of the article, the decision Makarashvili and others against Georgia issued in September 2022 is discussed. The factual and legal parts of this case are analyzed, as well as those issues that are characterized by some ambiguity and on which it will be important to clarify the practice of litigation in the future.

At the same time, the final opinions of the UN Human Rights Committee of September 2022 on Georgia and relevant details, which were considered by them as against human rights, are presented.

The aim of the work is to help the interested audience and students to create a real picture of the problems of compatibility of the Code of Administrative Offenses with human rights and provide information on various international human rights protection mechanisms in order to make the adoption of a human rights-compliant Code of Administrative Offenses more realistic in the future.