In Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group and Others v Georgia [2021] ECHR 1097, the European Court of Human Rights held that Georgia’s failure to protect LGBT demonstrators from mob violence violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Demonstrators who were marking International Day Against Homophobia were met with a violent counter-demonstration from a Prayer Rally led in part by a prominent cleric of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Counterdemonstrators included priests and parishioners from various churches in Tbilisi.

The background

In 2013 the two applicant NGOs, Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group and Identoba, told the Ministry of the Interior of their intention to hold a peaceful public rally – a silent twenty‑minute flashmob – on 17 May 2013 in the centre of Tbilisi to mark the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) Continue reading →