Freedom in Speech

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia marked globally

Last Updated on Friday, 18 May 2012 09:35 Written by Courtesy of Pink News Friday, 18 May 2012 08:43

Governments, organisations and individuals around the world have been marking this year’s International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia today.

IDAHO falls on 17 May each year on the anniversary of the World Health Organisation’s decision decategorise homosexuality as a mental disorder.

The organisation points out that 1.5 billion people globally still live under regimes which criminalise gay relationships.

Rainbow balloons are being released today in Russia, Estonia, Ukraine, Germany , Kenya and Iran, IDAHO organisers said.

Last year, events taking a stand against homophobia were held in seventy countries. This year, IDAHO coordinators say activists in 95 countries around the world have planned some form of event.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said: “Today is an opportunity to celebrate how much progress has been made in changing attitudes towards LGB&T people.

“In the UK, we are continuing to remove barriers and tackle prejudice – by toughening hate crime laws, campaigning to eradicate homophobia and transphobia in sport, supporting action against bullying in schools, and through our current consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage.

“However, today it is also important to reflect on the challenges we still face, at home and abroad. We are continuing to drive change across government through our LGB&T action plan as well as pushing for more action from partners overseas.”

Location-sensitive networking app Grindr said it was sending a message to its global user database asking them to add the word IDAHO to their profile.

Jessica Stern, Acting Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said it was marking three key advances in South America.

The Commission wanted to mark to Argentina’s “ground-breaking” new law on gender identity, the Inter-American Court’s decision to overturn a Chilean court decision which removed Karen Atala’s children from her because she was gay and Chile’s advances on hate crime legislation, spurred on by the murder of young gay man Daniel Zamudio.

The Australian Capital Territory’s Deputy Chief Minister and Sports Minister, Andrew Barr announced the creation of a two-year programme to tackle homophobia in sporting clubs.

In the UK, local councils around the country were hoisting rainbow flags. Energy company E.ON, which employs 85,000 globally, was displaying them at five offices in the Midlands. Manchester Airport was welcoming guests to the UK with the multi-coloured standard, and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said it would be flying the rainbow flag at its headquarters in Norwich as a show of solidarity with those suffering homophobic abuse.

Akoro Joseph Sewedo- Executive Director of The Initiative for Equal Rights in Lagos, Nigeria said: “It is quite depressing that secular states in this century will still base governance on religion rather than the constitution, which supersedes and emphasizes the secularity of modern state and their obligations to protect and promote human rights regardless of sex, age, creed, tribe and other status [sexual orientation and gender identity/expression] as stated in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights”.

The Gay and Lesbian Equality Network in Ireland met with the Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality and called for access to civil marriage for gay couples.

Kieran Rose, GLEN Chair said: “Ireland has made significant progress in tackling the legacy of discrimination towards LGBT people. In 1993 we achieved decriminalisation of gay men based on equality, followed by powerful equality legislation, comprehensive civil partnership based on marriage, and now progress towards civil marriage. Civil marriage, building on the comprehensive civil partnership legislation, is the next incremental step in achieving equality.”

British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne and International Development Minister Stephen O’Brien said: “It is sadly the case that in many countries Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people continue to suffer brutal violence and discrimination. These people are not making a political statement, or asking for special treatment, they just want to be free to be who they are and to love who they choose.

“These simple demands are not Western impositions but universal human rights we should all be able to take for granted. Yet in over 70 countries consensual same-sex relations continue to be criminalised. In some, sexual relations between consenting adults are a crime punishable by the death penalty. We strongly oppose any criminalisation of same-sex relations.”

For more information on the events taking place around the world to mark IDAHO today, visit the dayagainsthomophobia.org website.

President Obama confirms support for equal marriage

Last Updated on Sunday, 24 June 2012 14:31 Written by Courtesy of Pink News Friday, 11 May 2012 00:00

Barack Obama, the president of the United States, has announced in an interview with ABC News that he thinks gay couples should have the same legal right to marry as heterosexual couples.

In an interview with Robin Roberts, he said that his views have ‘evolved’ over the past few years, based on conversations with staff members, gay and lesbian service members, and people in his own family.

Support for ‘Kill the gays Bill’ enters the UN through the back door

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 March 2012 07:28 Written by Jane Muthoni Tuesday, 06 March 2012 13:13

Russia is seeking to take the world back to the ‘dark’ days when human rights and who enjoyed them was the preserve of the state. With little to write about on its human rights record, Russia seems to be indirectly supporting concerted efforts by some countries to see that LGBT people do not enjoy their rights. Russia is one of the unsafe places in the world for lesbians and gay people.

Russia has drafted a report seeking to return the world into ‘traditional values’ and possibly make nonsense of all international instruments and protocols on human rights. The draft report also suggests giving states the sole authority of deciding permissible levels of human rights.

The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee discussed the draft report on 20-24 February 2012 in Geneva during its Eighth session. The draft report will be further discussed in August during the Ninth session.

Amongst other things, the report suggests that "all international human rights agreements ... must be based on, and not contradict, the traditional values of humankind. If this is not the case, they cannot be considered valid”, that the international community should defer to the sovereignty of States, that human rights recognition arises from "responsible behavior" by the individual, and in promoting "the family" as a transmitter of moral values fails to acknowledge either the diversity of family forms or the fact that families can also be potential sites of abuse.

This means the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other instruments may be rendered useless reference tools especially if countries driven by homophobia look at proposal as a way to address homosexuality.

A statement by ARC international calling on countries not to support the report says: While the report acknowledges that “traditions” can be harmful, the report erroneously assumes that “values”, and hence “traditional values”, are inherently positive.

The suggestion of the report is also that for example in traditions where women are deemed as valueless property, such cannot be questioned as long as it fits within the traditions. In places where for example a society deems it fit to rape lesbians to ‘correct’ their sexuality, this can also are permissible.  It also means for example, the Ugandan Anti- Homosexuality Bill is OK since the draft report calls for ‘recognition of sovereign states to make their own decisions’.

Critics say the report overlooks the existence of negative values such as racism, sexism and xenophobia, as well as the reality that harmful traditional practices are frequently legitimised by the harmful traditional values on which they are founded.

“Every social grouping in the world has specific traditional cultural practices and beliefs, some of which are beneficial to all members, while others are harmful to a specific group, such as women. Despite their harmful nature and their violation of international human rights laws, such practices persist because they are not questioned and take on an aura of morality in the eyes of those practising them,” continues the report. Critics of the report also says the drafters assume all states are responsible and can guarantee the rights of their citizens.

“This approach suggests that the adoption and fulfilment of human rights obligations is wholly dependent upon the good will of the State, and overlooks the role of the international human rights framework in ensuring that the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings is respected, and the responsibility of the international community not to overlook systemic and egregious human rights abuses,” they say.

Civil Societies worldwide have signed a petition to protest the Russian draft report.

The petition can be found at *

http://arc-international.net/global-advocacy/traditional_values_sign_on.*

Arc international has also given a list of concerns and reason all human rights organizations campaign against the proposal by Russia.

Transgender people fight forced sterilization in Sweden

Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 11:11 Written by Admin Friday, 20 January 2012 07:34

Transgender persons continue to face an uphill battle in Sweden. According to a law on their books for some time now, transgender persons who wish to undergo gender reassignment or sex change surgery in Sweden are required to also endure forced sterilization, essentially preventing them from having children down the line. While many activists have fought against it, including one group from New York named the *Human Rights Watch*, the law remains in effect.