Human Rights Watch

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Russia Declares Leading LGBT Rights Group ‘Extremist’

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Last week, a St. Petersburg court in a closed door hearing, designated a leading Russian LGBT rights group, Coming Out, as an “extremist organization.” The ruling delivers another severe blow to a community that has become a key target of the Kremlin’s harmful “traditional values” crusade.  Coming Out is the first LGBT rights organization to be formally designated “extremist” since Russia’s Supreme Court in 2023 prohibited the so-called International LGBT Movement, opening the floodgatesfor arbitrary prosecutions of LGBT individuals or those perceived to be, along with anyone who defends their rights or expresses solidarity with them. The case against Coming Out stemmed from a classified […]

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UN Experts Rebut Olympics Sex Testing Plan

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United Nations human rights experts issued a damning public critique of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) plans to “sex test” all women athletes.  Last year, the IOC started a secret process to “protect the female category,” and it appears the result is an impending announcement that all women athletes will undergo genetic sex testing for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic games.  Sex testing has long been used by sporting bodies to target women athletes who, often through variations in their sex characteristics, or intersex traits, have higher than typical natural testosterone. Yet sex testing has been debunked as unethical, unscientific, and unworkable, and has often relied […]

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Brutal Police Raid on LGBT-friendly Venue in Azerbaijan

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Last month, Azerbaijani police raided a venue in the capital Baku, known as a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and detained over 100 people. According to witnesses and independent media, those detained were abused by police who made it seem like the operation was to target sexual and gender minorities rather than routine law-enforcement. According to a witness Human Rights Watch spoke with, police arrived shortly after midnight, confiscated patrons’ mobile phones, demanded passwords and searched through private photos and videos without warrants. Officers took at least 106 people to the Nasimi District Police Department, then forced […]

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Dominican Republic: Court Ends Security Forces Gay Sex Ban

(New York) – The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court has struck down provisions in the Codes of Justice of the National Police and the Armed Forces that criminalized consensual same-sex conduct by officers, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling, made public on November 18, 2025, is a landmark victory for equality, ending a regime of state-sanctioned discrimination that violated the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) officers.  In Judgment TC/1225/25, the court held that article 210 of the Code of Justice of the National Policeand article 260 of the Code of Justice of the Armed Forces violate constitutional guarantees to nondiscrimination, privacy, free development of […]

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Türkiye: Draft Law Threatens LGBT People with Prison

A government proposal would pave the way to bring criminal charges against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Türkiye, one of the most alarming rollbacks of rights in decades, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposal should be immediately withdrawn.  A draft of the omnibus reform law, referred to as the 11th Judicial Package, was leaked to the media, revealing plans to amend the Turkish penal code and civil code with new articles that threaten the rights of LGBT people. One would criminalize behavior deemed “contrary to biological sex and general morality,” including its so-called “promotion.” Another would sharply restrict […]

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Intersex Rights Advance Based on Evidence, Principle

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Intersex Awareness Week is marked annually to recall a small group of protesters who picketed the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1996 for ignoring the rights of children born with sex variations. While the academy has not budged, medical institutions and governments around the world are increasingly recognizing that people born with intersex variations deserve bodily autonomy. Intersex children are born with chromosomes, gonads, hormone function or internal or external sex organs that don’t match typical social expectations. For over half a century, doctors around the world have routinely performed surgery on newborns to standardize bodies so that they align with […]

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Brazil Resumes Key Dialogue over Equality

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This week Brazil is hosting the 4th National Conference on the Rights of LGBTQIA+ People, an ambitious effort to chart new directions for public policy on equality and inclusion. Beyond its national scope, the conference underscores Brazil’s reemergence as a key voice in global equality debates. And as many countries, including in the Global North, roll back support of LGBTQIA+ rights, the conference shows how the Global South can lead in renewing commitment to equality and human rights. The conference seeks to convene government, civil society, and grassroots actors from across Brazil and shape a new National Plan for the Promotion of Human Rights […]

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EU Launches New LGBTIQ+ Strategy

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This month, the European Commission released its LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030, a renewed and ambitious step in the European Union’s commitment to equality, inclusion, and human rights. Building on the 2020–2025 framework, it reaffirms the goal of making “a Union of Equality” a lived reality, while confronting the surge in anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric and violence across Europe and beyond. The strategy aims to strengthen the EU’s legal and policy framework against discrimination, calling for the full implementation of the Equal Treatment Directive and stronger safeguards against hate speech, hate crimes, and “conversion practices.” It also reinforces commitments to inclusive education, equitable health care, and recognition […]

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Olympics: Secret Process Threatens Fairness and Inclusion

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to create a new working groupon the “protection of the female category” without disclosing its members or process presents an alarming risk for all women athletes, the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA) said today. This move, a departure from the transparency for three other new working groups, signals a dangerous retreat from the IOC’s human rights commitments, including its 2021 Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations. It opens the way for restoring practices that have long threatened women’s rights and protection.  “This opaque process stands in stark contrast to the comprehensive, […]

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Burkina Faso Criminalizes Same-Sex Conduct

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Burkina Faso’s Transitional Legislative Assembly passed a law on September 1, 2025, that makes consensual same-sex relations a criminal offense, a major setback for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Under this new law, people found guilty of homosexuality could face two to five years in prison, as well as fines. The law violates LGBT people’s rights to non-discrimination and privacy. The law is being enacted amid shrinking civic and political space and a major crackdown by the military junta on the political opposition, media, and peaceful dissent. Until now, Burkina Faso has never had a law criminalizing consensual same-sex […]

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