LGBTQ

U.N. Member States Accused of Cherry-Picking Human Rights

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has criticised member states for ‘cherry-picking’ human rights – advocating some and openly violating others – perhaps to suit their own national or political interests.

OPINION: Can the Violence in Honduras Be Stopped?

By Lisa Haugaard, Sarah Kinosian, and William Hartung
Honduras is one of the most violent nations in the world. The situation in the country’s second largest city, San Pedro Sula, demonstrates the depth of the problem.

LGBTI Community in Central America Fights Stigma and Abuse

By Edgardo Ayala
Despite the aggression and abuse she has suffered at the University of El Salvador because she is a trans woman, Daniela Alfaro is determined to graduate with a degree in health education.

Inequality Fuels HIV Epidemic in the Caribbean

By Desmond Brown
At 49 years old, Edison Liburd has established himself as one of Antigua and Barbuda’s most recognisable artists. But Liburd was not always in the spotlight. In fact, you could say he was a man in hiding.

Anti-Gay Legislation Could Defeat Goal to End AIDS in Zimbabwe by 2015

By Jeffrey Moyo
Despite a mandate to eradicate HIV/AIDS under the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Zimbabwe has done little or nothing to reduce the rate of infection among vulnerable gays and lesbians, say activists here.

Civil Society Freedoms Merit Role in Post-2015 Development Agenda

By Mandeep S.Tiwana
Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, an advocacy NGO, is facing criminal charges for sending a tweet that said: “many Bahrain men who joined terrorism and ISIS have come from the security institutions and those institutions were the first ideological incubator”.

Learning, Dating and Hooking Up: Sex Education Goes Online in Cambodia

By Michelle Tolson
The transition to puberty can be an awkward experience for youth to navigate. In Cambodia, sex education is moving increasingly into the virtual realm, with the Internet and mobile phones providing welcome spaces for young people to learn, seek help and stay safe.

Cash-Strapped Human Rights Office at Breaking Point, Says New Chief

By Thalif Deen
After six weeks in office, the new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein of Jordan launched a blistering attack on member states for insufficient funding, thereby forcing operations in his office to the breaking point "in a world that seems to be lurching from crisis to ever-more dangerous crisis."

OPINION: On Reproductive Rights, Progress with Concerns

By Joseph Chamie
For most of human history, reproductive rights essentially meant men and women accepting the number, timing and spacing of their children, as well as possible childlessness. All this changed radically in the second half of the 20th century with the introduction of new medical technologies aimed at both preventing and assisting human reproduction.

U.N. Urged to Reaffirm Reproductive Rights in Post-2015 Agenda

By Thalif Deen
The U.N.'s post-2015 development agenda has been described as the most far-reaching and comprehensive development-related endeavour ever undertaken by the world body.

LGBT Visibility in Africa Also Brings Backlash

By Joel Jaeger
Eighteen-year-old Gift Makau enjoyed playing and refereeing football games in her neighbourhood in the North West Province of South Africa. She had come out to her parents as a lesbian and had never been heckled by her community, according to her cousin.

New Anti-Discrimination Law Could Worsen Situation for Georgia’s LGBT Community

By Pavol Stracansky
Georgia’s LGBT community is sceptical that recently-introduced anti-discrimination legislation hailed by some rights groups as a bold step forward for the former Soviet state will improve their lives any time soon.

In Azerbaijan, ‘Family Is the First Fear’ of LGBT Community

By EurasiaNet Correspondents
The 19-year-old Azerbaijani man claims he awoke one morning in mid-August to the sound and feel of gasoline splashing on his body and his mother angrily screaming. Through a sleepy haze, he saw her burning a piece of paper. Suddenly, he alleged, his mother’s intentions became clear; he was about to be burned to death for being homosexual.

Arab Region Has World’s Fastest Growing HIV Epidemic

By Mona Alami
At a time when HIV rates have stabilised or declined elsewhere, the epidemic is still advancing in the Arab world, exacerbated by factors such as political unrest, conflict, poverty and lack of awareness due to social taboos.

Jordan’s LGBT Community Fears Greater Intolerance

By Mona Alami
As the region is rocked by violence against a backdrop of the rise of radical groups, Jordan’s lesbian gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community fears that new instability in the Hashemite kingdom could lead to increased intolerance towards the community. 

The Darker Side for Gays in Lebanon

By Mona Alami
In a country where civil liberties remain the prerogative of the powerful and wealthy, the Lebanese gay scene is to be treaded carefully.

Stigma Still a Major Roadblock for AIDS Fight in Africa

By Julia Hotz
Though West Africa’s massive Ebola outbreak may be dominating the spotlight within the global health community, HIV/AIDS remains an enormous issue for Africa as a whole - a sentiment that Washington officials made clear this week in their discussions of legislative and technological setbacks plaguing progress in fighting the epidemic.

Human Rights Low on U.S-Africa Policy Summit

By Julia Hotz
As the White House prepares to host more than 40 African heads of state for the upcoming U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, civil society actors from the U.S., Africa and the international community are urging the Barack Obama administration to use the summit as an opportunity to more thoroughly address some of Africa’s most pressing human rights violations.

For Many Asian LGBT Youth, Homophobia Starts at Home

By Jassmyn Goh
To teenagers, running away can seem like the easiest answer to problems at home, but for Alex* it was his only option when his family refused to accept that he identified as a transgender male.

AIDS Conference Mourns the Dead, Debates Setbacks

By Diana Mendoza
The 20th International AIDS Conference concluded today as the first in its history that remembered not just the 39 million people worldwide who have died of AIDS but also those who lost their lives in the crashed MH17 flight carrying six of its delegates, one of whom was the past president of the International AIDS Society (IAS).

U.S. Groups Reject Anti-Gay Discrimination Bill over Religious Exemption

By Julia Hotz
Civil rights groups across the United States have withdrawn their support from a major legislative proposal that would outlaw workplace discrimination against sexual minorities, warning that recent legal developments could exempt companies on religious grounds.
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