Tag Archives: human rights

Reuters reports: Russia’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that LGBT activists should be designated as extremists, in a move that representatives of gay and transgender people fear will lead to arrests and prosecutions. A Reuters reporter in court heard it announce that it had approved a request from the justice ministry to recognise what it called “the international LGBT social …

The BBC reports: Russia’s justice ministry has filed a motion with the country’s Supreme Court to ban the activities of what it calls the “international LGBT public movement” as extremist. It is unclear whether the ministry’s statement refers to the LGBT community as a whole or specific organisations. It said the movement had shown signs of “extremist activity”, including inciting …

Haaretz reports: Israel has chosen not to join the United States and other Western countries in condemning Hungarian legislation that the countries say will harm the local LGBTQ community. The statement, which has been signed by more than 30 countries including France, Germany, Australia and Ukraine, expresses concern over a series of laws promoted in recent months by the government …

Forbes reports: Over the past thirty years, 49 UN member States have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual acts, according to a new database by ILGA World. However, laws criminalizing being gay remain a reality for one-third of countries worldwide. It’s still illegal to be LGBTQ in 64 UN member States. In Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the death …

The New York Times reports: A Moscow court ordered the closure of one of the country’s most prominent human rights groups on Wednesday, a day after its parent organization was also shut down in verdicts that, for many Russians, served as a painful coda to a year marked by the erosion of civil rights and media freedoms. Moscow’s City Court …

Reuters reports: There will effectively be a British diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China because no ministers or officials are due to attend, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament on Wednesday. The White House announced on Monday that U.S. government officials will boycott the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s human rights “atrocities,” though the action allows …

Yahoo Sports reports: Australia’s federal government has confirmed that it’s set to follow the USA’s lead by joining a diplomatic boycott of next year’s Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The move comes after China issued a stern warning to America that it would “pay the price” for the decision not to send any government officials to Winter Games Beijing, in protest …

ESPN reports: China on Tuesday accused the United States of violating the Olympic spirit by announcing an American diplomatic boycott of February’s Beijing Winter Games, amid an increasingly bitter feud over the Biden administration’s decision not to send officials over human rights concerns. The U.S. is attempting to interfere with the Beijing Winter Olympics “out of ideological prejudice and based …

Reuters reports: U.S. politicians should stop calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to avoid hurting bilateral ties and China will take “countermeasures” if necessary, China`s foreign ministry said on Monday. The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that U.S. government officials will not attend the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, CNN reported on Sunday. Those …

CNN reports: The Biden administration is expected to announce this week that no US government officials will attend the 2022 Beijing Olympics, implementing a diplomatic boycott of the games, according to several sources. The move would allow the US to send a message on the world stage to China without preventing US athletes from competing. The National Security Council, which …

The BBC reports: Ambassadors from around the world have called for the rights of gay and transgender people to be respected in Poland, where many towns have declared themselves free of “LGBT ideology”. An open letter released on Sunday urges the Polish government to “end discrimination” of sexual minorities. It was signed by envoys from 50 countries, including Poland’s EU …

Via press release from the ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Human Rights First filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s policies regarding so-called “safe third country” agreements with Guatemala and other nations that force people fleeing for their lives to seek asylum in the same dangerous …

The Associated Press reports: The past decade has seen a backlash against human rights on every front, especially the rights of women and the LGBT communities, according to a top U.N. human rights official. Andrew Gilmour, the outgoing assistant secretary-general for human rights, said the regression of the past 10 years hasn’t equaled the advances that began in the late …

The Guardian reports: Protests have poured in from organisations objecting to the Trump administration’s virtual boycott of established systems designed to protect human rights, after the US withdrew from the United Nations human rights council last year. Washington is accused of rebuffing official complaints from monitors, undermining human rights bodies and threatening officials with prosecution should they set foot on …

The Jurist reports: Angola’s parliament approved a new penal code Wednesday that drops provisions widely interpreted to criminalize homosexuality. The new penal code is Angola’s first since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. The prior code contained many holdover provisions from the colonial era, including a ban of “vices against nature,” which was understood to criminalize same-sex relationships …

The Guardian reports: The Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN investigators over potential human rights violations occurring inside America, in a move that delivers a major blow to vulnerable US communities and sends a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world. Quietly and unnoticed, the state department has ceased to respond to official complaints from UN special rapporteurs, …

CNN reports: Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter says the United States has “lost its place” as a global leader of human rights. “We should be the champion of human rights. We’re a superpower, not based solely on military power; part of that definition should be a commitment to human rights,” Carter said Tuesday at an event at The Carter Center …

Reuter reports: The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on five Russians and Chechens, including the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, for alleged human rights abuses. The new sanctions blacklisted Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Treasury Department said in a statement. U.S. authorities accused Kadyrov of …

Pink Sixty reports: MP Ryad Abdel Sattar [photo] on Wednesday introduced to the parliament’s speaker Ali Abdel Aal a draft law entailing five main articles of the criminalisation of homosexuality. The draft law would pave the way for strict punitive measures against the LGBT community in Egypt, in addition to restricting the presence of LGBT People inside Egyptian society, Abdel …

The Guardian reports: Russia has placed a prominent British businessman on the Interpol wanted list. President Vladimir Putin is understood to have sanctioned the move against Bill Browder, who has led an international campaign against Russia over the killing of the jailed Moscow lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. On Wednesday Canada became the latest country to pass a “Magnitsky Act”, targeting officials …