Posts Tagged ‘LGBT’
February 6, 2014
The BBC has produced a map which shows the broad legal status of gay people living in UN member states, according to data provided by the UN’s human right’s office, who built on information from the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association.
The legal status of people in same-sex relationships depends very much on where they live. At one end of the spectrum there are those countries that punish homosexuality with the death penalty – Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen – as well as in parts of Nigeria and Somalia. At the other end, there are those countries where gay couples have the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples. However, the categorisation of countries according to their approach to gay rights is not without problems. Some states have conflicting laws on same-sex relationships, simultaneously having laws that punish and protect, while other countries have different laws in different regions. This is reflected in the key. Countries have been categorised by their most progressive or regressive laws, apart from where laws are contradictory. Countries where gay rights vary between states have been coloured by their most progressive or regressive law. [The map does not reflect day-to-day experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans and intersex people. In many places where anti-discrimination laws exist, gay people continue to be persecuted by state authorities and wider society.]
There is also an interesting timeline, pulled together by the UN, which uses 1789 – the date of the French Revolution – as its starting point. It was chosen by the UN as a baseline, as it was a time when homosexuality was criminalised in many countries.
BBC News – Where is it illegal to be gay?.
Posted in books, human rights, OHCHR, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: anti-discrimination, BBC, Discrimination, gay people, gay rights, homophobia, Homosexuality, interactive world map, International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association, legal status, LGBT, lgbt human rights, LGBTI, OHCHR, overview, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
December 10, 2013
In the context of 10 December, Human Rights Day, Curt Goering of the Centre for Victims of Torture posts in the Huffington Post a piece on the value of information technology to prevent torture. .. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Centre for Victims of Torture, Curt Goering, Egypt, FDEP, Front to Defend Egypt Protesters, Huffington Post, human rights, Human Rights Day, Human Rights Defenders, information technology, Lebanon, LGBT, Middle East, New Tactics in Human Rights, SMS, torture, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 3, 2013
For 10 years, Tactical Technology Collective have worked with human rights defenders, in order to help them better to protect their sensitive data, their communications, themselves and their communities when carrying out their work, through developing online resources, books, and carrying out regular trainings around the world. As part of this process, it has developed the “Security in a Box” book and toolkit (https://securityinabox.org) which now receives around 200,000 visits per month.
However, in order to continue improving our materials and make digital security easier to understand and contextualise for specific communities of human rights defenders, they have begun a process of creating “context guides” which make the guide more accessible for certain communities at risk. The idea of this survey is to help create and improve such a guide, for LGBTI activists from Africa, which would help the community understand the need for healthy digital security practices by demonstrating the risks they face and providing stories of best practices from others in the community.
You can find the survey at https://tacticaltech.org/africa-survey. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Daniel Ó Clunaigh: dan@tacticaltech.org.
[to get an idea of such a guide, created for LGBTI human rights defenders from the Arabic-speaking world, see in English: https://securityinabox.org/en/context/01]
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Africa, collaboration, digital security, Frontline Defenders, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, LGBT, protection, Security-in-a-box, survey, Tactical Tech Collective, Tactical Technology collective
October 25, 2013
A post of 24 October in LGBT Weekly informs about a cooperation between Front Line Defenders and the LGBTI Support Centre of the of the Helsinki Committee for human rights of the Republic of Macedonia and the ACI-Particpa in Honduras in a new campaign RADIOHRD. LGBTI rights defenders attempt to increase their recognition and capacity to carry out their work by sharing a clear message on Public Service Announcements [PSAs] in each country in order to change societal attitudes and institutional frameworks that lead to violence and discrimination. This new campaign utilizes radio as one of the most powerful tools for awareness raising and reform. “In a time where technologies of information play an increasingly important role in the processes of social change, we find that the radio is still the most reliable, trusted and widely used media amongst all sectors of society all around the world, and Honduras and Macedonia are no exception to this”, explains Kocho Andonovski, program director of the LGBTI Support Centre in Macedonia. Through this awareness raising campaign, eight human rights defenders give their testimony to illustrate the reality faced by the LGBTI communities and those working to promote their rights and end violence and discrimination. During the coming months, national and local radio stations in Macedonia and Honduras will broadcast the series of Public Service Announcements PSAs, short radio spots aimed to promote the recognition that LGBTI rights defenders are engaged in legitimate and valuable work to promote human rights. The campaign will also be broadcasted via the website http://www.radiohrd.org, where video interviews, petitions in support of the defenders and further information are also available.
via Front Line Defenders uses radio to promote the security of LGBTI rights defenders | LGBT Weekly.
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awareness raising, campaign, Frontline Defenders, gay rights, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, homophobia, Honduras, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, LGBT, LGBT social movements, LGBTI, protection, PSA, public service announcements, radio, radio journalist, Republic of Macedonia, www.radiohrd.org
October 18, 2013

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, on 16 October 2013 called on the Togolese Government to ensure a favourable environment in which human rights defenders can carry out their work. The Government can do this by fully implementing the existing legal framework, avoiding stigmatisation and fostering a spirit of dialogue and constructive criticism, she said at the end of her five-day mission to assess progress made in Togo since her last visit in 2008.
Compared to 2008, “The environment for defenders is more enabling now, but important challenges remain” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: defamation laws, fact finding, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, journalists, LGBT, Margaret Sekaggaya, Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur, Togo, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations Special Rapporteur
October 3, 2013
On the morning of 19 September 2013, a group of unidentified women threatened and harassed the organisers of human rights film festival “Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan” (One World Kyrgyzstan) demanding that the documentary about imprisoned human rights defender Azimjan Askarov – produced by Freedom House –should not be projected. The film festival opened in Bishkek on 18 September 2013. The annual film festival is organised by human rights group Bir-Duino Kyrzystan, led by human rights defender Ms Tolekan Ismailova, the director of Human Rights Centre ‘Citizens Against Corruption’.
Azimjan Askarov is a human rights defender who spent 25 years documenting human rights abuses in Kyrgyzstan until his arrest in 2010. He is currently serving a life sentence after an unfair trial during which he was beaten in detention and denied access to his lawyer. The film festival organisers do not share the opinion of some politicians that he film could provoke inter-ethnic clashes
[On 28 September 2012, at previous festival edition, the organisers were banned from screening a documentary on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Islamic world, after a complaint was lodged by the Prosecutor’s Office, which considered the film to be “extremist, inciting religious hatred and aimed at dishonouring Muslims”. Following this decision, Tolekan Ismailova was targeted with a defamation campaign in the media and the Human Rights Centre ‘Citizens Against Corruption’ received threats. Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal on this case on 19 October 2012 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/20249, and an update on 4 December 2012 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21003%5D
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Azimjan Askarov, Azimzhan Askarov, Bishkek, documentary, films, Freedom House, freedom of expression, Front Line Defenders, Human right, Human Rights Centre 'Citizens Against Corruption, human rights def, Human rights defender, human rights film festival, human rights film festivals, Kyrgyzstan, LGBT, One World Kyrgyzstan, Tolekan Ismailova
September 27, 2013
(Kristi Pinderi, LGBT activist from Albania, with Natalia Bracelet)
Stockholm-based Civil Rights Defenders announced today, 27 September 2013, that Kristi Pinderi, LGBT activist from Albania, will be one of the first human rights defenders to be included in the Natalia Project security system. His bracelet is activated just in time Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: albania, alert system, Belgrade, Belgrade Pride parade, Civil Rights Defenders, digital security, human rights, Human rights defender, Kristi Pinderi, LGBT, Natalia, Natalia project, North Caucasus, protection, South-east asia, tool, western balkans
September 27, 2013
On 26 September 2013 many countries attended the first ministerial meeting held at the United Nations on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

(UN Photo/Amanda Voisard)
Foreign ministers attending the meeting, held on the margins of the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, adopted a declaration pledging not just to protect LGBT rights but also to counter homophobic and transphobic attitudes. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay commended
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: argentina, Brazil, Croatia, equality, European Union, France, homophobia, HRW, Human right, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, LGBT, LGBT rights, LGBTI, meeting, Navi Pillay, Netherlands, non-discrimination, Norway, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, sexual identity, United Nations, United States Secretary of State
September 25, 2013

On 23 September Amy Bergquist of the Advocates for Human Rights writes in her blog: The International Justice Program doesn’t get to travel to Geneva very often, but thanks to the United Nations’ live webcasts, we can usually see and hear all the U.N.’s human rights action as it happens. On Friday morning, I was eager to watch the U.N. Human Rights Council’s consideration of the Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon. I was especially moved when one of our colleagues from the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS) took the floor to speak on behalf of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association and recounted his July 15 discovery of his tortured and murdered colleague, Eric Ohena Lembembe, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocates for Human Rights, allafrica com, Cameroon, CAMFAIDS, Eric Ohena Lembembe, gay rights, Geneva, homophobia, HRW, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, investigation, IRIN, LGBT, LGBT rights, Neela Ghoshal, NGOs, persecution, reprisals, Roger Jean Claude Mbede, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
September 2, 2013
JULIA HANN wrote for allAfrica.com on 28 August that the torture and murder of Cameroonian gay rights activist Eric Lembembe on July 11 has shattered the hopes of those who were quick to herald a “global momentum” in the international gay rights movement. Just two weeks before his death, Lembembe, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Alice Nkom, allafrica com, Cameroon, death threats, Eric Lembembe, harassment, Julia Hann, killing, Lembembe, LGBT, LGBT rights, LGBT social movements, Michel Togué, Nkom