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Treatment
of Sexual Minorities a Global Shame - Experts
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
MEXICO CITY (IPS World Desk) - Governments and societies
in all parts of the world continue to violate the human rights of
sexual minorities in pervasive, pernicious, and often violent ways,
investigators say.
The
discrimination faced by gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender
people is so extensive and profound - ranging from social censure
to torture and death - that the human rights group Amnesty International
has termed it "an unacknowledged global shame."
A panel of independent UN experts is appealing to communities around
the world to submit information to help it investigate sexual minority
issues.
"The right to sexual preference should not be violated,"
says Hina Jilani, the UN secretary-general's special representative
on human rights defenders. "We are concerned about the level
of discrimination and persecution."
Jilani's colleagues on the panel include Nigel Rodley, the UN's
special rapporteur on turture, and Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special
rapporteur on violence against women.
Rodley plans to include information on "individual cases of
torture and general allegations" against homosexuals and transsexuals
in his next annual report to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
Similar patterns of abuse and discrimination on the basis of sexual
identity are enshrined in social mores - and legitimised by law,
policy and government practice - in countries as apparently unlike
as Brazil, Syria and the United States, human rights monitors say.
Abuses range from torture, ill treatment, and sexual assault to
forced medical or psychiatric treatment, according to Amnesty.
"The world over, lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender
people are at particular risk of human rights violations because
of their sexual identity," the London-based human rights watchdog
says in a report, 'Torture based on sexual identity - an unacknowledged
global shame.'
Police and prison officials are among the perpetrators of such abuses
in the 30 countries Amnesty studied for its report. In Brazil, for
instance, three transvestites were arrested in one town and taken
to the police station where they were "brutally beaten with
rubber sandals studded with nails and forced to clean filthy lavatories."
Amnesty also highlights "physical and psychological violence
- often amounting to torture - in the community and even in the
family." In Syria, it reports, a gay student was held back
after school and raped by a teacher who told him he was a "sin
to this world."
"The prevalence of sexism and homophobia in society means that
lesbians are at particular risk of abuse, including being forced
into marriage or sexual relationships with men," Amnesty adds.
Although such abuse is pervasive across continents and cultures,
it is surrounded by "a conspiracy of silence" stemming
from "generalised tolerance" of abuse against these victims
and "fear of retaliation and reluctance by the victims to gain
exposure," the group says.
Equally disturbing, notes Amnesty, are laws that condemn same-sex
acts. "In over 70 countries same-sex relations are considered
a crime, and in some instances they incur the death penalty."
According to another, US-based rights group, these "sodomy
laws" have led to violence against homosexuals and transsexuals
in Romania, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere.
Laws "regulating sexual behaviour, social norms, or gender
give a pretext for detention and for police brutality and inhuman
treatment," according to the San Francisco-based International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).
The group blames governments for legitimising violence against sexual
minorities.
"In many countries, governments either directly or indirectly
permit violence against those who belong to a sexual minority,"
says Sydney Levy, IGLHRC's communications director. "Being
a member of a sexual minority comes at a heavy price."
Many states, Levy adds, "hold the view that gays and lesbians
do not need protection even if they are persecuted."
Even where laws appear less overtly hostile to sexual minorities,
the group says, policies that contain discriminatory treatment based
on sexual orientation or gender identity contribute to creating
"a class of people whose existence may not be criminalised,
but whose citizenship is clearly second-class."
Such discriminatory practices include the banishment of gays from
orgnisations such as the Boy Scouts of America and the refusal to
recognise same-sex marriages, resulting in the denial of health
insurance and other benefits customarily offered to heterosexual
couples.
Jilani, the UN special representative, says, "Human rights
cannot be separated into different boxes, and the marginalisation
of a people is a violation of minority groups. They have a right
to be part of the mainstream."
T. Kumar, of Amnesty's US section, says governments cannot claim
to uphold human rights if the rights of sexual minorities are denied.
"As a first step, they should change the laws in the books
that declare same-sex acts as a crime," he says.
Thereafter, governments should create an atmosphere for "public
acceptance" of gay and lesbian rights, he argues, adding, "The
rights of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) working on these
issues have to be protected."
Kumar's appeal on behalf of NGOs is particularly timely. On Monday,
the UN General Assembly begins a three-day special session on HIV-AIDS.
Many
grassroots groups - including those having nothing to do with sexual
minorities - have complained of being marginalised or excluded from
the event as well as the series of prior negotiations to hammer
out a declaration for governments to adopt at the formal session.
Reportedly, this has been done at the behest of delegates from the
United States, Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt and the Philippines,
among others.
Sexual minorities are at particularly high risk of contracting HIV-AIDS,
according to UNAIDS, the joint agency spearheading the world body's
response to the deadly epidemic. Yet, the IGLHRC is among groups
that have been barred from the UN session's human rights roundtable.
(END/IPS)
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