Over the past few years, the mass media has reported individual cases of sexual harassment and violence by churchmen of the Orthodox Church of Georgia. These news talked about the guilt of high-ranking churchman. Finally, in November 2023, poet Lela Kurtanidze wrote on her personal Facebook page about her experience of sexual harassment in the past — she was exposing Metropolitan Nikoloz Pachuashvili of Akhalkalaki, Kumurdo and Kari.
We contacted Lela Kurtanidze shortly after these news and asked to find a time for an interview, we talked. We also contacted Nikoloz Pachuashvili, who did not answer the calls, but sent us a message in response to our questions. He told us that the dissemination of “accusations of moral content” against a churchman without procedural regulations only serves “reputational damage”. According to him, “accusation, which is not legally relevant, is defamation and contains the signs of crime”. We tried to contact Andria Jaghmaidze, head of the Public Relations Service of the Patriarchate, who also did not answer the call and wrote to us:
“No one has addressed us, and nothing written on social networks can become a basis for research”.
Aprili Media contacted a number of women who may have information about alleged sexual harassment by Nikoloz Pachuashvili. Some of them told us that they have heard about it from acquaintances or friends. We asked to contact these women with confidentiality. In one case, the alleged respondent abstained from talking. Aprili Media has not been able to locate the other womenat this time, but we are open to hearing from them again if they decide to speak after the article is published.
At the same time, Radio Tavisupleba published an article in which, along with Lela Kurtanidze, 4 women anonymously shared their experiences of being sexualy harassed by Nikoloz Pachuashvili at different times.
Although the story was reported in the media, it seems that the synodal commission of the Georgian Orthodox Church has not decided on the allegations against Nikoloz Pachuashvili – at least, information about this is not found on the website of the Patriarchate, nor on their Facebook page, where the decisions of the synod are periodically published.
In this article, we will once again recall what women were saying about sexual harassment from Nikoloz Pachuashvili, and we will try to answer the question – why did this story pass without an appropriate response? And how significant is the fact that the person exposed in the alleged sexual harassment is a high-ranking, influential church figure? In addition, we will introduce Nikoloz Pachuashvili to you better.
What Does Lela Kurtanidze Say?
Lela Kurtanidze told Aprili Media that the case of sexual harassment by Metropolitan Nikoloz Pachuashvili happened about 12 years ago. Lela was in the student expedition to Javakheti, which is held every year and aims at the integration of ethnically Armenian and Georgian youth and the study of cultural monuments.
“I was in the expeditions before and I knew Nikoloz Pachuashvili, then he was a great authority for me. It matters a lot what is your perception of a person is. At that time I was also religious, and this also determined my respect for him,” Lela tells us and remembers, “we were camping near the Paravani lake. Nikoloz Pachuashvili used to come up there and stay. At that time, as I remember, he stayed there for for several days”.
As Lela tells us, she was growing up in the village, deprived of all resources, she was a lonely child and already during her student period she used all the free educational opportunities. That’s how she ended up in the camp too.
She recalls that when she first met the Metropolitan, he made a good impression on her.
“He was a simple and an educated person: he spent time with us, joking. He was a good swimmer, and when I once told him at dinner that I didn’t know how to swim, he offered to teach me. I was very happy that the reverend offered me swimming lessons.”
As she says, one morning she actually went with Nikoloz Pachuashvili to learn to swim on Paravani lake.
“I did not know how to swim at all, I was not used to water. I needed help learning. During swimming lessons, a person can hold you in neutral areas of the body and help you. He did so at first. Then I felt his hand going further inside. Back then, on the one hand, I had an inner belief that he was a holy, trustworthy person, and on the other hand, something was happening to which I had a physical reaction. I realized that something is not as it should be and instinctively pulled away. I had an internal conflict, I didn’t like something”, Lela recalls and says: “When the same thing happened several times, he accused me of my reactions, that nothing was working out, that I was spoiling the work. And Ifelt guilty that I prevented him from teaching me.”
Lela says that Nikoloz Pachuashvili taught her to swim for several days and she doesn’t remember the chronology anymore, but there was more, including touching her genitals and breasts.
“This was accompanied by a guiltying conversation. At that time, I could not directly tell him why he was doing this, he was an authority, and I did not know enough either.”
She recalls that while returning to the camp from swimming, before getting out of the car, there was something else that happened.
“Before getting out of the car, he pulled me and, how inappropriate it is to call such an act a kiss, but he touched his lips on my cheek. On the one hand, I had anxiety, on the other hand, I also felt joy,” Lela tells us and recalls another occasion. “Another evening, I don’t remember where, I only remember the car. The car was arranged in such a way that, if necessary, you could sleep inside at night. He moved the seats, hugged me and fell asleep. I had a feeling of disgust, I ran away, got out of the car”.
Lela says that he was a sly person, he sexually harassed her, and then, when talking, he casually addressed her in the company of others.
“I left the camp with anxiety, maybe I couldn’t name it, but I knew that something bad had been done to me.”
“It would have been difficult to admit this at the time. This equals to the destruction of faith and trust built up over the years, and disgust over one’s own weakness. I probably couldn’t bear to admit it to myself at the time. Since I started talking about it, I have a better understanding of what happened, what I felt and why I felt it, and I go through many processes. Since I started to name things slowly, I am constantly in the process of thinking. Sometimes I think that he has no soul, he is completely insensitive”.
Lela also says that she has had moments blaming herself more than once.
“I thought that maybe things are not so simple in a spiritual relationship, maybe it is a part of it. I felt that I was distant during swimming and in other situations, but the fact that I took him swimming gave me joy.”
Lela says that the fact that other women started talking openly helped her to recognize and name the fact of sexual harassment.
“The interesting thing was that I felt like I was aware of it, I called it a name, but I identified myself more as a supporter than as having the same/similar experience with other women’s stories. I still couldn’t connect the dots. It came even later, when the old values began to crumble and be revalued. I was 30 years old when I started therapy, and then I began to perceive my feelings, read them, name them. I spoke about the news of sexual harassment just a little while ago.”
Lela tells us that it took her a long time to go through a long process to be able to talk about sexual harassment.
“The environment is such that there is total mistrust and hatred towards women. It is easy to automatically blame the woman, and the time that has passed since the fact adds to that. When it comes to churchmen, when you live in a poor country, where it is difficult to base your comfort on state structures, the existential comfort of a person is based on religion, replacing this support leads to serious consequences. Accordingly, people need that trust and faith in the churchmen should not be shaken, the church structure is “untouchable”, a part of dignity, identity”.
What Other Women Talked About
Lisa decided to tell her story to Radio Tavisupleba after the other participants of the Javakheti expedition did not believe Lela. The case Lisa tells about is 15 years old. At that time Lisa was religious and thought about becoming a nun.
“I have come a long and painful way from those nights of the Javakheti expedition to peaceful nights in my bed. I also needed the help of a psychiatrist in between, because I just couldn’t communicate normally with men of my age, even on a verbal level. My self-esteem had fallen so much that I couldn’t even think about the future anymore,” Lisa says in a letter sent to Radio Tavisupleba journalist Nastasia Arabuli, in which she talks about the same feelings that other women had – respect for the Metropolitan, guilt of conscience regarding the incident, an attempt to find one’s own guilt.
Lisa remembers that she was “filled with joy” when Pachuashvili called her after the expedition. In an interview given to Radio Tavisupleba, Lisa says that the Metropolitan took her into the bedroom, asked her to sit on the bed and started asking questions about her sex life, then sat down next to her and “then everything went blurry”.
“Touching my body, his body, genitals. But these were not random touches. I sat stunned and couldn’t understand what to do from the shock, the wheel was spinning in my mind at the fastest speed”.
“I couldn’t even allow that the person who was playing us Bach the other day, talking to us about sublime love and St. Matthew Passion [Bach’s work – R.T.], was capable of doing something immoral. I just couldn’t believe it, or I didn’t want to believe it… As he was leaving, he told me that what had happened was great and exciting, that I was special, a carrier of quiet energy, I have a beautiful body and breasts, strong and beautiful legs, and that we should keep our meetings a secret. The man equal to God and I had a secret.”
According to Lisa, she had many meetings like this with the bishop. The strict rule of obedience seen in the eparchy of Akhalkalaki, the call of the priest not to ask unnecessary questions to the clergy and guests, assures her that there were other people who went through a similar path, but chose to remain silent.
“I remember when I told him that I didn’t like this much and we couldn’t continue, he replied that nothing bad was happening here, no one forced me against my will and I was as free as a bird in my decisions. For a long time I blamed myself for seducing him, I attracted his attention.
Keti also tells about the fact of sexual harassment by Nikoloz Pachuashvili. She recalls the story that happened in 2012 with Radio Tavisupleba. At that time, Keti was 19 years old and she met Pachuashvili during the Javakheti expedition. According to her, the Metropolitan uses the same strategy with girls – he treats you as if you are special and has chosen you as a “friend”. As Keti says, Nikoloz Pachuashvili invited her to Akhalkalaki residence and the incident happened right there.
“We were looking at vinyl records at his residence when he put his hand under my dress and grabbed my ass. I pulled away and he made a face as if nothing had happened and continued talking. I forgot this fact, pretended to forget it, and continued to live like that. Little by little, I separated from the church and my faith weakened”, says Keti while talking to Radio Tavisupleba.
“I wouldn’t let any other man do not as much, not half as much, not even anything, I wasn’t really a mimetic child. My obedience, this thing [attitude towards him] was based from beginning to end on my faith, which this man destroyed. After that, I don’t even want to look at the church and I will do everything so that my children don’t even see a church,” says another respondent of Radio Tavisupleba, Tamar, who remembers her relationship with Pachuashvili for years, even from the age of being a minor.
Tamar’s parents were friends with Pachuashvili, and that’s how the 10-11-year-old child met the ordinary priest at that time. However, according to her, the first suspicious story happened when she was 15 years old.
“He put me in his lap and said, now kiss me on the right cheek, then on the left, then again on the right and then again on the left. I was in such an awe, I thought he was such a superior person, physically it was unpleasant for me, but I couldn’t help doing it.”
Tamar says that she spent every summer with Nikoloz Pachuashvili – sometimes in the monastery, other times on pilgrimage expeditions. The last incident of sexual harassment that Tamar remembered happened when she was 19 years old.
Touching with hand, patting legs and compliments, “I’m crazy about you” and so on were common, he didn’t even hide it. He would talk about it: I touched this person, I touched that person, I was sinful with this, I was sinful with that. Then there was one time, I was somewhere around 19 years old, during a heavy fast, I went in to make a confession and he put his hand in my dress from behind, saying he managed to make me blush, Tamar recalls and says that she felt a guilt of conscience during her relationship with Pachuashvili, she thought that she perceived something wrong, imagined it, or according to her faith, a priest was testing her faith with physical contact.
According to Tamar, Pachuashvili has repeatedly told her that if she went to the monastery, she would always be by his side. She also mentions that she remembers many women who were fascinated by the metropolitan, including nuns.
“They counted minutes and seconds with each other, about who would spend how much time in his room. Those people who are with him are not there because of their love of God, they are there specifically because of that person. They have a cult of him.”
Sopho has known the Metropolitan since the age of 11-12. During her student days, she also visited the Javakheti expedition, however, according to her, the incident of sexual harassment happened in Germany. Sopho was in Germany for a year to work, her host family was well acquainted with the Metropolitan and he visited as a guest for a few days.
As Sopho says, Pachuashvili behaved very normally, fatherly. One day, the Metropolitan was in his room when he asked Sopho to sit on the bed, but she refused. Almost a year later, the Metropolitan was still in Germany when he wrote to Sopho and offered to spend a few days with her.
“I attended the mass, I gave confession to him, I shared with him, then we had lunch together and he told me, come with me, I will tell you the stories of Javakheti too. He lived in a hotel, where he had a very small room, which had a separated shower and toilet in the same room. At some point he told me that if i wanted to go in and shower, I could, which I refused. Then he lay down on the bed and told me to come and sit next to him. I was sitting on the side and we were talking about some things – at that time I was in love and it turned out that he knew this boy’s family well. At some point, he talked about them too,” recalls Sopho and says that the feeling of discomfort deepened when he grabbed her hands, asked her why her hands were frozen, and then offered her to undress and lie down in bed.
“No, thank you very much,” I said very coldly and tried to distance myself. I was very sad and I remember praying to myself: “God help me, God help me, God help me!” All this happened in a short period of time, it was not long, I think,” recalls Sopho and continues, “Actually, nothing more happened to me, but I remember the feeling with which I left that place. I could not wait to get to the airport, I cried a lot on the way, I had a terrible feeling of emptiness, I blamed myself, and I couldn’t understand what I was blaming myself for, what did I do that I shouldn’t have done?!”.
According to Sopho, after returning to Georgia, she heard another story about the Metropolitan – a relative told her that their mutual friend, an older woman, became a victim of sexual harassment while being in Javakheti. The priest told the woman not to tell anyone, because they wouldn’t believe her anyway.
Who Is Nikoloz Pachuashvili and What Are His Answers?
To questions related to sexual harassment, Pachuashvili gave almost the same answer to Radio Tavisupleba as to Aprili Media – the accusation is legitimate only if it is spread in accordance with the relevant rules, otherwise it is defamation, which itself contains the signs of a crime.
The author of the article writes that she met Pachuashvili when she recorded the interviews with three women. However, according to Nastasia Arabuli, the Metropolitan met with her with the condition that she would not record the conversation, but would send the answers to the questions after the meeting. Before the meeting, he wrote her that “the accusation, which is not legally relevant, is defamation and contains the signs of crime”.
“During the meeting, he did not deny the fact that he was teaching Lela Kurtanidze to swim in the Paravani lake and asked me how I could imagine teaching swimming without touching the body,” the journalist writes.
In the letter published by Radio Tavisupleba, where Pachuashvili answers the journalist’s question, whether he remembers Lela Kurtanidze from the Javakheti expedition, the Metropolitan’s answer is the following:
“With the blessing of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, His Holiness and Blessed Ilia II, since 2001, student expeditions have been held in Javakheti, in which several thousand young people took part. Many of them are successful and famous people today. I still remember many of them, especially those who participated in the first 10-15 years, when I directly led the expeditions.
When asked by a Radio Tavisupleba journalist that apart from Lela, other women also spoke about sexual harassment from him, who do not intend to file a legal dispute, but want to protect others, and whether he thinks that he really hurt the women around him, Pachuashvili answers:
“People don’t need protection from me, on the contrary, my service is to protect people from danger – and how I manage to do so, God and society will judge. I don’t ask for anything from anyone for my selfless service”.
Nikoloz Pachuashvili is an influential churchman who owns a lot of property and has political connections. According to the information collected by iFact publication in 2020, Pachuashvili has 65 sq.m apartment in Tbilisi, on Chavchavadze Avenue, which was given to him in 1992 under a privatization agreement for 309 maneti. According to the same article, in 2011, his 19-year-old son bought an adjoining apartment for 30 thousand dollars. In addition, an 89.9 square meter apartment in the airport settlement was given to the Metropolitan by his daughter, Salome Pachuashvili, which was bought by the second daughter, Ana Pachuashvili, in 2010 for 20 thousand GEL. In addition, Pachuashvili owns the Kumurdo LLC, which is a feature and documentary film studio, and manages three non-profit organizations. In 2020, Pachuashvili also told the Sknews publication that he bought half of Aspara, an almost abandoned village by Paravani lake with donations, and plans to build an oasis here and sell houses at a high price.
In addition, in 2021, information about Nikoloz Pachuashvili can also be found in the leaked files from the State Security Service. The documents talk about other real estate and land in his possession, as well as his connections with various political figures. It should be noted that the authenticity of these documents has not been confirmed, although a number of people mentioned in the released files have said at different times that such conversations did take place.
It is also written in the distributed files that Pachuashvili provided information about the Lugar laboratory to the Russian citizen L.D. and met periodically. At that time, the Metropolitan neither denied nor confirmed the conversation about the Lugar laboratory with the media.
“This is the first time I am hearing this particular story from you, otherwise I heard it when some files were distributed. I have many [friends] in Russia, including that person. I did before, at least.”
In the leaked documents you will also find an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the Metropolitan.
“The metropolitan’s education and sociability can be considered a positive side, which helps in communicating with people and influencing them positively. N. Pachuashvili’s negative side is his attitude towards the representatives of the weaker sex. He is known to have an intimate relationship with: young women and nuns on pilgrimage in the eparchy. He has an intimate relationship with Russian citizen L.D. [name and last name hidden by Aprili Media],” the note says, and it is also said that Pachuashvili is characterized as “flexible” and “womanizer”.
Although Nikoloz Pachuashvili was less reluctant to talk to the media about the contents of the files allegedly leaked from the State Security Service years ago, this time in response to a question from Radio Tavisupleba, he said that the distribution of these files is a criminal offense that will be punished sooner or later and that he is not going to talk about its contents.
Aprili Media contacted Nikoloz Pachuashvili again before publishing the article. This time the Metropolitan answered the call, but he told us that he has already answered all the questions with Radio Tavisupleba and we will find everything there, and he is not going to say anything more.
What Should Have Been the Reaction to the Facts Spread in the Media, and Why We Got Silence in Return
“In my opinion, the silence is directly related to the fact that the person exposed is a high-ranking church official. In other cases, most likely, the investigative agency would have responded to this. Investigations should have been initiated in all cases, as some of the stories contained evidence of a crime [in some cases, given the nature of the crime, the statute of limitations had expired]. Women who anonymously spoke about their personal experiences and saw that there was no response from government agencies, how should they have confidence in different agencies? This silence shows women that even if you want to speak out, no one will react, because there is an influential, famous person on the other side”, says Ana Tavkhelidze, a lawyer of the Partnership for Human Rights (PHR).
According to Ana, when information containing signs of a crime is published, in a legal state, this is already the basis for starting an investigation, and the response is immediate.
“The fact that there was no response to the information is explained by the influence and status of the person, which stops the state agencies and they do not respond.”
We asked Levan Sutidze, Tabula’s editor-in-chief and a religion columnist, what kind of reaction could be caused to the spread facts inside the church. According to him, the authority authorized to investigate the mentioned case is the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Georgia.
“The synod also accommodates the judicial function of the church, therefore, this format would be the most acceptable. When it comes to the fact of sexual harassment, in a normal situation, any organization should start an investigation, and if it considers that its resources are not sufficient for this, it can apply to the law enforcement body with a corresponding request. It is true that in these cases the women do not go to court, but the goal of the church should not be to protect the Metropolitan, it should investigate whether the Metropolitan violated any norms of church law or not”, – notes Levan Sutidze and recalls that the church did not have a proper response in another case.
What Levan Sutidze remembered: In 2016, it was reported that the Metropolitan of Borjomi and Bakuriani, Seraphim Jojua, appealed to Ilia II to release him from the priesthood. His replacement, Theodore Chuadze, informed the parish about this news from the pulpit and also said - "Don't start digging and investigating what caused this". At the end of the same year, the news spread that they were going to hand over the eparchy of Germany and Austria to Seraphim, which was followed by protests from the clergy and the parish. They said that they were not going to subordinate Seraphim, who was released due to the most serious accusations from the parish. In response to the protest, Seraphim Jojua himself refused to lead the eparchy. As for the accusation, in 2017 Sknews wrote that the family of a minor girl and a part of the parish in Borjomi accuse Seraphim of trying to establish sexual relations with a 15-year-old teenager, and the bishop had to leave the eparchy for this very reason. This was when the population of Borjomi was divided into two - supporters and opponents of Seraphim. The supporters said that the fact of sexual abuse of a child was made up, while the opponents pointed out that the priests talked about the crime on his part, and then Seraphim must say something in his defense, prove that the spread information is really false. And the mother of the child, with whom Reverend Seraphim allegedly tried to have sexual relations with, confirmed the information to Sknews. The reported information contained signs of a criminal offense, but this did not affect Seraphim. Moreover, in October of the same year, the Synod restored him to the priesthood and appointed monthly financial assistance from the Patriarchate. In 2021, when the so-called rumors spread, you could find the name of Seraphim Jojua in the documents, including in a conversation with Nikoloz Pachuashvili, to whom Jojua tells that he kissed the child, for which he already apologized.
According to Levan Sutidze, “the blindness of the Orthodox Church and the protection of corporate interests instead of serving the interests of society speaks of the deplorable and anti-Christian state of this institution.” There is not even a discussion here about who is right and who is a liar, there is no sign that the church will start an investigation or at least pretend that it cares about who says what, there is no such thing, which is a disaster.”
Ana Tavkhelidze explains that regardless of the time that has passed since the incident, there are mechanisms by which a person can be held accountable, including the court, although the statute of limitations in cases of sexual harassment is one year. In this case, the public defender’s office can be effective, where the statute of limitations is not defined.
“It is important that each case is evaluated individually, that’s why it is necessary to involve lawyers. A person may think that they do not have evidence, but with the help of lawyers it is possible to find it. Once the evidence is gathered, the burden of proof depends on the defendant. We had a case when the rape case was brought to justice after about 15 years, because it was possible to create a standard based on the evidence, and there was a result,” Anna tells us, noting that they had both positive and negative experiences while working on cases of sexual harassment. “We have to repeat this all the time, but the topic of sexual harassment is still new, unfamiliar to many… Before we reach the result, we have to go through difficulties, including the attitude of the defendant, for example, questions that are often asked about why the woman did not speak for years. However, we also have positive practices in recent years, which, I hope, will continue and improve even more”.
Sexual Harassment, Authorities and the Society
“The closer a person is, the more acute is the wound they inflict on us. However, we cannot say that any form of sexual violence is light — it is a wound in a person’s self-perception, in a person’s spiritual condition, it is an attitude that violates dignity. Although sexual harassment is an administrative offense, the harm caused to a person can be equal with other forms of violence. Many factors determine how intense the damage will be, and it is independent, among them, of the person’s resilience,” says psychologist Maya Tsiramua.
Although sexual harassment has a harmful effect on a person’s self-perception, it may not be completely clear, so it is not uncommon for this act to go unanswered.
“In our society, not a single action of a woman is “timely” and “beliveable”, not even confession, not even death. I kept silent because no one would believe me about what was happening and what I ran away from.”
Women who have experienced sexual harassment often find it difficult to identify the situation, and the situation is especially acute when the abuser is someone influential or trusted by the victim. Maya Tsiramua tells us that cases of sexual harassment are accompanied by self-blame or suspicion that the mind has exaggerated the facts.
“Whatever cases I have had in my professional practice, identification has never been immediate, which has many reasons. There is often an asymmetry when sexual harassment is perpetrated by a senior or authority figure. At this time, on the one hand, a person has a feeling of discomfort or the thought that they themselves caused the action, and on the other hand, a feeling – “maybe I am making it up”, “maybe my perception is an expression of my own attitude”. And sexual harassment is an ambiguous act – it may be manifested by behavior or a compliment of sexual content, even a violation of personal space, and it is difficult for a person to distinguish whether a specific action was sexual harassment or a friendly gesture”, – Maya Tsiramua tells us, adding that the ambiguity that accompanies sexual harassment causes significant emotional changes in a person.
According to the psychologist, the fact that women started talking about sexual harassment and this form of violence became more visible helped other women to realize that they had similar experiences. However, society’s attitudes and attacks on victims of sexual harassment make it difficult to talk about these experiences.
Women who decided to talk about sexual harassment by Nikoloz Pachuashvili draw attention to the fear of public sentiments.
“At some point it was very difficult for me that I could not talk about it to anyone for fear that they would blame me in return. In addition to this, I lost the ground under my feet – I lost what I believed in. It was very hard for me to understand that what this man preached from the pulpit was completely different from what he actually did, and he got away with it,” Sopho recalled to Radio Tavisupleba.
In the same article, another woman, Lisa, says she kept quiet because no one would believe her.
“In our society, not a single action of a woman is “timely” and “beliveable”, not even confession, not even death. I kept silent because no one would believe me about what was happening and what I ran away from. Over time, my mind blocked all those dark and unpleasant memories, as if nothing had happened… However, from time to time these memories were still evoked at the level of sensations, smells.
According to Maya Tsiramua, authority figures use their influence as a shield and expect that what they say will be believed more, so in such cases, a woman needs much more courage to speak, and emotional support in return is even more necessary.
The patriarchal system imposes strict standards on women, gaining control over their sexual self-expression and, at the same time, trying to normalize the violation of women’s personal space online or physically.
“It’s as if it’s everyone’s business how you should live, how you should express yourself, as if men have an absolute right to a woman’s personal space. This unhealthy attitude plays a big part in violence against women, so the sensitivity is less. I can’t remember an instance when the society was united and empathetic towards a woman who was sexually assaulted or harassed.”
According to her, the existing attitudes towards the personal space of a person should be completely reviewed, and the discussion about the need to respect one’s own and other people’s personal space should start from childhood and become a part of upbringing.
What Is Sexual Harassment — Legislation of Georgia
According to the legislation of Georgia, sexual harassment has been regulated since 2019. As a result of changes in several laws, mechanisms for responding to sexual harassment in various spaces, including public places, as well as in the work environment, have been defined.
According to the law, sexual harassment is unwanted sexual behavior that is intended and/or causes a violation of dignity and creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, degrading or offensive environment.
The Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia specifies that saying and/or addressing sexual phrases, showing genitals and/or any other non-verbal physical behavior of a sexual nature is considered sexual behavior.
Sexual harassment in a public space is punishable by a 300 GEL fine, and repeated offenses within 1 year from the imposition of the fine will result in a 500 GEL fine or up to 1 month of corrective work. Sexual harassment of a minor, pregnant woman, a helpless person, a disabled person will result in a fine of 500 to 800 GEL, and repeated offenses within 1 year or by more than one person will result in a fine of 800-1000 GEL or up to 1 month of corrective work or up to 10 days administrative detention.
According to the Labor Code, sexual harassment in the workplace will result in a warning or fine. Committing the same action within 1 year will result in a double fine. The law also states that in the case of sexual harassment, imposing responsibility on the offending employee does not release the employer from the corresponding responsibility. The employer may be held liable if the fact of harassment and/or sexual harassment became known to them and they did not report this fact to the labor inspectorate and/or did not take appropriate measures to prevent the said action.
In case of sexual harassment, you can apply to the police and the court, as well as to the employer. It is worth noting that the alleged victim can also apply to the anti-discrimination mechanism of the Public Defender of Georgia, including in the case of sexual harassment occurring in labor and pre-contractual relations, and the statute of limitations does not apply.