26 March 2015 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights

Articles

Kyrgyzstan: European Leaders Should Raise Rights Concerns
by Human Rights Watch, 26 Mar 2015

Leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, and Switzerland should raise pressing human rights concerns and seek commitments to address them from Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambaev, Human Rights Watch said today. The Kyrgyzstan leader is visiting Brussels and European capitals from March 22 to April 1, 2015. European leaders should seek firm promises to reject two bills before the Kyrgyzstan Parliament that are wholly incompatible with respect for human rights in a democratic society. One is a blatantly discriminatory anti-gay “propaganda” bill, and the other a deeply problematic “foreign agents” bill that would limit the ability of human rights and other nongovernmental groups to continue their important work. EU leaders should also press Atambaev to release immediately the wrongfully imprisoned rights defender Azimjon Askarov, given the flawed and unfair trial that led to his lifetime imprisonment.
 

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FRA transgender health data discussed at European Trans Health conference
by EU FRA, 25 Mar 2015

 FRA research covering transgender health was discussed at the first conference of the European Professional Association for Transgender Health in Ghent from 12-14 March. The event attracted 350 participants from 31 different countries, including healthcare providers, civil society representatives, policy makers and academics. A FRA expert presented data from FRA’s EU LGBT survey via a video message on the obstacles trans people face in accessing healthcare. The survey findings revealed that one in five transgender respondents who accessed healthcare services (22%) or social services (19%) in the year preceding the survey felt personally discriminated against by healthcare or social service personnel because of being trans.

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Russia fails in bid to stop U.N. staff benefits for all gay couples
by Reuters, 24 Mar 2015

Russia failed on Tuesday in a bid to stop the United Nations extending staff benefits to all same-sex couples after a U.N. General Assembly budget committee voted 80 to 43 against the proposal. There were 37 abstentions and 33 countries did not vote.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in July that the United Nations would recognize all same-sex marriages of its staff, allowing them to receive U.N. benefits. Previously, staff members' personal status was determined by the laws of their country of nationality. But the United Nations now recognizes all same-sex couples married in a country where it is legal, regardless of their nationality. Russia wanted the 193-member General Assembly Fifth Committee, which deals with the U.N. budget, to overturn Ban's decision and had been threatening to put the measure to a vote since December. "We must speak plainly about what Russia tried to do today: diminish the authority of the U.N. Secretary-General and export to the U.N. its domestic hostility to LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said in a statement after the vote.
 

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California lawyer seeks to put 'shoot the gays' proposal on 2016 ballot
by The Guardian, 23 Mar 2015

A California lawyer says he wants to legalize the execution of gay people, and there may be nothing the state’s attorney general can do to stop the proposal from moving forward. Matt McLaughlin, an attorney in Huntington Beach, California, filed paperwork to bring his proposal, which would sanction the killing of gay and lesbian residents on the basis of their sexuality, before voters in November 2016. The initiative, named the “Sodomite Suppression Act”, is awaiting further review by the office of the state attorney general, Kamala Harris, who does not appear to have the authority to block it. However, the measure is unlikely to reach voters, as the California supreme court can intervene to prevent measures that violate the state constitution from reaching the ballot.

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