On September 26, the Social Justice Center (SJC) reported that the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the decision of the Court of Appeals, which determined that holders of the status-neutral identity cards residing in the occupied territories of Georgia have rights equal to citizens of Georgia. The Court affirmed that it is a positive obligation of the state to ensure the integration of persons residing in the occupied territories, including persons with disabilities, and to provide access to essential services. “The court’s decision is precedent-setting and should be the basis for a fundamental review of existing policies and new legislative changes,” – SJC reports.
The “status-neutral identity documents” are special IDs issued to occupied territory residents who do not wish to identify themselves as Georgian citizens. It can serve as an international travel document for the countries that agreed to recognize them, and can be presented to the Georgian administration as a valid proof of identity.
The court case that led to the decision concerns an incident in 2021. A person with disabilities living in Ochamchire (Abkhazia), a holder of a status-neutral identity card, applied to the Social Services Agency for a disability pension but was denied due to the lack of Georgian citizenship.
The Supreme Court of Georgia, referring to the country’s Constitution, ruled that persons living in Abkhazia and holding neutral identity cards have the equal right to participate in legal relations and declared illegal the longstanding practice of the Social Service Agency of denying these persons adequate social assistance.
While the neutral ID card system provides access to some social services, such as health care and education, its holders have been excluded from essential protections, such as pensions and housing services. According to SJC, this limited support undermines the objectives of social security for people in the occupied regions, and the low take-up of the neutral ID card reflects the inadequacy of the associated benefits.
“In our opinion, this decision of the court changes the problematic policies and practices of the state, which provide weak social guarantees to persons with neutral IDs, and will contribute to increasing the availability of social assistance to persons living in the occupied territories in the future,” states SJC, adding: “We hope that based on the decision of the Supreme Court, the Parliament of Georgia and – within the limits of their competence – the Government of Georgia and other relevant executive authorities will consider offering broader social guarantees, payouts and programs for persons with neutral IDs. As a result, the protection of rights and social needs of people living in the occupied territories will be significantly improved.”
Georgia introduced the status-neutral identity cards in 2011, aiming to integrate the citizens living in occupied territories without them having to accept the Georgian national IDs. The uptake of the new cards has been relatively limited. Activists argue, one of the reasons was that they only provide limited access to social services. A vast majority of the residents of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia are known to hold Russian passports and receive their social benefits from that state. Recently, Russia decided to withhold some of the social payments.
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