The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) recently determined that France had infringed upon a woman’s rights in a defamation case where she accused a corporate executive of sexual harassment at her workplace. The court’s judgement in
Allée v. France was based on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.
The court argued that the email sent by the applicant, though dealing with a sensitive issue, was not intended for public distribution and remained confined to a limited recipient list, composed mainly of individuals either directly involved in the case or with legitimate rights to be informed about instances of harassment.
The ECHR criticized the domestic courts’ excessively stringent interpretation of the conditions for freeing the applicant from criminal liability. The French courts falsely deemed the email as a public communication. The ECHR stressed the applicant’s right to express herself intensely as the alleged victim and criticized the unfair burden of proof imposed on her. Owing to the disproportionate restrictions on freedom of expression, the court judged there to be a breach of Article 10 and commanded France to award the applicant 8,500 EUR for damages and 4,250 EUR for expenses.
According to the judgement, Vanessa Allée, a French national working in a religious educational organization, suffered alleged harassment from an executive. Following her request for a professional transfer, her husband too accused this executive of harassment and assault. Thereafter, Allée wrote an email detailing the allegations to the association’s managing director, among others. Following these events, her husband posted comments on Facebook, leading to private charges of defamation against both of them — a decision upheld by the Paris Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation. Vanessa Allée subsequently appealed to the ECHR in May 2020.
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