<p>Gay people still live fear many untri around the world – prejudice, torture and executn are mon. Can two new legal and diplomatic mpaigns change attus?</p>
Contents:
- GAY RIGHTS: A WORLD OF EQUALY
- INEQUALI LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR (LGBT) HEALTH AND HEALTH RE ACCS AND UTILIZATN WISNS
GAY RIGHTS: A WORLD OF EQUALY
People around the world face vlence and equaly—and sometim torture, even executn—bee of who they love, how they look, or who they are. Sexual orientatn and genr inty are tegral aspects of our selv and should never lead to discrimatn or abe. Human Rights Watch works for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr peopl' rights, and wh activists reprentg a multiplicy of inti and issu. We document and expose ab based on sexual orientatn and genr inty worldwi, cludg torture, killg and executns, arrts unr unjt laws, unequal treatment, censorship, medil ab, discrimatn health and jobs and hog, domtic vlence, ab agast children, and nial of fay rights and regnn. We advote for laws and polici that will protect everyone’s digny. We work for a world where all people n enjoy their rights fully. * gay inequality *
Human Rights Watch works for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr peopl' rights, and wh activists reprentg a multiplicy of inti and issu. Siarly, to addrs the specific vulnerabili of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBTQ) people to the impact of the COVID-19 panmic, a more nuanced perspective is need.
And Kenya, the gay and transgenr youths who found themselv homels after beg chased om their hom by angry groups actg on mors of a gay marriage, were targeted for abe bee they were poor. The homels youth arrted at a shelter Uganda for gay youth rejected by their fai, unr the pretense of enforcg printial directiv to slow the spread of COVID-19, were victims of poverty and discrimatn. In South Korea, spegoatg on the heels of media reports about an fected person who went to gay clubs amplified fears of faial rejectn as well as the threat of employment discrimatn and other enomic repercsns the public sphere.
INEQUALI LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR (LGBT) HEALTH AND HEALTH RE ACCS AND UTILIZATN WISNS
* gay inequality *
They lack muny support works due to homophobia, and have no accs to the ernment-issued emergency suppli available to needy South Ains durg the lockdown. The se is nsired extreme even by Iranian standards, bee while the ath penalty is place for homosexualy, is ually enforced only when there is a charge of asslt or rape alongsi ; the accatns the three s were of nsensual Uganda, policians have been seekg sce 2009 to stute a strikgly nasty piece of legislatn: the ath penalty for "aggravated homosexualy" (beg homosexual more than once) and, a totalarian touch, penalti for teachers, doctors and even parents who spected that someone their re was gay but didn't report them. In Belize, there is a law on the statute books that crimalis homosexualy; a gay rights group the untry, Unibam, has brought a motn challengg the law, and had this reply om the mister of works, Anthony "Boots" Martez: "My posn is that God never placed anythg on me for me to look at a man and jump on a man.
"For lbian and gay people who live one of the 82 untri where homosexualy is crimalised, the world is not gettg better: is gettg signifintly, monstrably worse. Homosexualy was crimalised here the 1880s, and was therefore part of our legislative package the age of empire. The impact on lbian and gay people growg up, you nnot overtimate what do to people livg unr those laws, even if they're not beg prosecuted.
It is settg out to change the law, the Commonwealth and beyond, on the basis that is a breach of ternatnal human rights to crimalise someone's sexual a few exceptns – Sdi Arabia beg one – all the untri that crimalise homosexualy are signed up to eher the Internatnal Covenant on Civil and Polil Rights or they are bound by tt se lgs their rpective urts. "They are not pursug this as part of a lbian and gay agenda.
An pennt UN human rights expert on Tuday warned that the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, trans and genr diverse (LGBT) people are beg “liberately unrmed by some state ernments the Uned Stat”, urgg more actn on the part of the Bin admistratn to protect them. | * gay inequality *
It's an ternatnal rights law agenda, " says story of the tst is this: when Uganda's homophobic upsurge began two years ago, Tim Otty, a QC wh a "strong sense of fairns" (acrdg to his entry Chambers UK), was asked by the Commonwealth Associatn to give his advice on the law, and found , perhaps unsurprisgly, to be breach of their human rights treaty obligatns. Cooper, also a barrister and a iend of Otty, explas how the suatn evolved: "Tim is pretty tablishment – he's at Blackstone chambers, he's not somebody you would associate wh lbian and gay issu. So I was not at all surprised when, as we found out our rearch, 80-pl jurisdictns ntue to crimalise homosexualy around the world.
"By the mid-90s, had been settled: ternatnal human rights law don't protect lbian and gay rights; protects inty. And as a nsequence of protectg inty protects you as a gay man or a lbian woman om havg your inty crimalised.