Category: World
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Facing the Myths: LGBT Voices from the Middle East and North Africa
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people living in the Middle East and North Africa share their responses to myths and stereotypes about LGBT people in the region on a new video and special feature released today by the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE) and Human Rights Watch.
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New Draft Treaty Affirms Protection for Women and LGBTIQ People Rights Organisations Applaud the Move
A coalition of human rights organizations, led by MADRE, Outright Action International and CUNY Law School, have announced a historic victory for the power of international law to extend protection to all victims of atrocities.
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Global Call to Reform Japan’s Law on Transgender People
A leading international health organisation has urged the government of Japan to reform its legal recognition procedure for transgender people.
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Botswana: High Court Strikes Down Sodomy Laws
The High Court in Botswana ruled on June 11, 2019 that laws criminalising consensual same-sex relations were unconstitutional, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The ruling upheld the rights of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
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Vatican Confirms Hate Against LGBTIQ People Are A Religious Value
On 10 June 2019 the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Vatican issued a 31 page long guidance on gender identity, stating decisively that gender is binary and imparted by God, not only denying the existence and rights of transgender people, but framing their existence as dangerous and threatening, and entirely overlooking the existence of intersex people.
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High Court in Botswana Rules to Decriminalise Same-Sex Relations
Today, on 11 June 2019, a full bench of the High Court of Botswana ruled to shake remaining relics of its colonial past and to strike down section 164(a) and (c), and section 167 of the penal code which criminalise same-sex relations, or «carnal knowledge against the order of nature», and prescribe a prison sentence of up to 7 years for those found guilty. The court unanimously ruled that the provisions are discriminatory, against public interest and unconstitutional.