English
ItalianoPer la protezione e la promozione dei diritti umani, della democrazia, dello stato di diritto e della giustizia internazionale
28 Jul 2016 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights
Articles
Scientists urge World Health Organisation to declassify trans identity as ‘mental disorder’
by Pink News, 27 Jul 2016
A study published in the Lancet says the WHO needs to stop incorrectly classifying trans identity. It suggests that the classification has led to discrimination, difficult legal statuses and obstacles to healthcare for trans people. There have been suggestions of how the WHO could change its classification of trans identity before its new edition of the International Classification of Diseases is released in 2018. “The definition of transgender identity, as a mental disorder has been misused to justify denial of health care and contributed to the perception that transgender people must be treated by psychiatric specialists, creating barriers to health care services”, says senior author of the study, Professor Geoffrey Reed from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “The definition has even been misused by some governments to deny self-determination and decision-making authority to transgender people in matters ranging from changing legal documents to child custody and reproduction”. Going on, the professor suggests that trans identity does not meet the requirements to be classified in such a way by the WHO.
Continua
The marriage equality plebiscite is a time bomb for Turnbull. We need a conscience vote
by The Guardian, 27 Jul 2016
Supporters of marriage equality – that is, most of Australia – would have had cause to despair when the Turnbull government was re-elected by the barest of margins on 2 July. Under a Labor government, marriage equality would have been a reality in Australia by the end of this year. Imagine the jubilation that Australia had finally caught up with the USA, UK, New Zealand and Ireland and the joy for same-sex couples who had waited so long to seal their union. For those with an optimistic streak, there may still have been a thread of hope left that Turnbull, the former champion of progressive policies and ideas within the Liberal Party and a passionate supporter of marriage equality, would at least force the issue with the conservative wing of his party by putting forward a plebiscite before the end of the year as he promised. Even if it would be a nasty and destructive battle for victory. Those tenuous hopes have now been dashed. After pledging repeatedly before the election that he would bring forward a plebiscite before the end of the year, he has now put the brakes on.
The politician behind Russia’s anti-gay law wants to decriminalise domestic violence
by Pink News, 27 Jul 2016
Yelena Mizulina, a member of the Russian parliament’s upper house, introduced the 2013 law which bans the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors. The law has been widely condemned and led for calls to boycott Russia during the Sochi Winter Olympics. But now Mizulina has introduced legislation which would decriminalise domestic violence, which is currently punishable with fines of up to 40,000 rubles ($600), or two years in jail. According to Russian media, the amendments she has introduced would reduce punishments for spousal or child abuse to misdemeanor or administrative offences. She said the current punishments are unacceptable, calling them “absurd”. Since Mizulina’s anti-gay ‘propaganda’ bill was introduced, LGBT rights groups in Russia have seen a rise in the number of anti-LGBT incidents including violence. Russian lawmakers later drafted a bill that would criminalise any “demonstration of one’s distorted sexual preferences in public places.”
Continua
How Gay Rights Advance Democracy in the Middle East
by Foreign Policy, 22 Jul 2016
Last month’s massacre at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando launched a heated debate about the relationship between Islam and homosexuality, and more acutely, about the prevalence of a virulent homophobia in the Islamic world. But in the Middle East, this debate began long before Orlando. LGBT people in this part of the world have been battling for their rights for years, and not without casualties. Across the region, sexuality has become one of the main battlegrounds in the broader confrontation between advocates for democracy and human rights on the one hand and authorities and conservative religious forces on the other. This is reflected in LGBT activists’ successful alliances with other progressive forces, and in the success they have found championing their own cause by casting it as part of a more general struggle for freedom and dignity. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drive to concentrate power in his own hands is being accelerated in the wake of last week’s failed coup attempt. Inherent to Erdogan’s growing authoritarian streak is his push to impose on the Turkish people a set of conservative, Islamist values that impinge on a raft of civil and personal rights.
Continua
Romania moves closer to ruling out possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage
by Reuters, 20 Jul 2016
Romania moved a step closer to ruling out the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage on Wednesday when its top court paved the way for a referendum on defining marriage in the constitution as a union strictly between a man and a woman. The nine judges on the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that a proposal signed by 3 million Romanians this year to change the constitution's definition of marriage was valid. Under Romanian law, the constitution can be changed after a proposal by the president, the government, a quarter of the members of parliament or at least 500,000 citizens. Parliament must approve the revision, which must then pass a nationwide referendum. Few politicians openly support same sex marriage in the socially conservative eastern European nation of 20 million, where the Orthodox Church holds considerable sway. Currently, the constitution says family starts "on the basis of freely consenting marriage between spouses". The Coalition for the Family, a civic initiative, gathered 3 million signatures earlier this year in favor of replacing "spouses" with "a man and a woman". It said only men and women can naturally start a family and raise children.