ECtHR obliges Georgia to pay compensation to victims at action in LGBT support in 2013

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has obliged Georgia to pay compensation in the total amount of EUR 193,500 to the persons who suffered at the disruption of the celebration of the Day of Combating Transphobia and Homophobia on May 17, 2013.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in 2013, a rally in Tbilisi in support of sexual minorities was interrupted by opponents of the action and ended in mass clashes, in which 28 people suffered.

"The claimants planned to hold a peaceful action aimed at increasing the public sensitivity in connection with discrimination against LGBT people in Georgia. The action scheduled for May 17, 2013, did not take place because the state failed to ensure demonstrators' safety. The actions of radical groups went beyond the scope of a peaceful rally and acquired an illegal and violent nature," the NGO "Young Lawyers' Association" has reported.

The ECtHR found that the state failed to take efficient measures to protect LGBT people from the participants of the counteraction, despite the fact that it was aware about such risks, the NGO has noted. Besides, the authorities' inaction sparked an unprecedented scale of violence, as the authorities failed to conduct a timely investigation into the attacks on LGBT people, which in 2015, the court treated as a violation.