On 23 June 2021, Equality Now submitted this amicus brief at the Supreme Court of Georgia in regards to the case in which, as a result of the defamation complaint by an influential public figure, the Tbilisi City Court and the Court of Appeal infringed the right of the survivor to speak out about her experiences of sexual harassment. This has been particularly worrying since the fact of sexual harassment had already been established by the anti-discrimination mechanism of the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia and the survivor was speaking her truth.
The amicus brief argues that the emerging use of defamation lawsuits in Georgia against survivors of sexual harassment to silence and retaliate against them is in violation of international human rights law and that the right to speak about the experiences of violence, harassment, and discrimination is integral to the right to live free from violence.