Chechen security forces visit homosexuals’ relatives and demand to write statements about the departure of their children to Syria, employees of two human rights organizations told Kavkaz.Realii edition.
“The policy of the Chechen law enforcement agencies is such: it is easier for them to immediately state that the person was recruited and he left for Syria. Most likely, this is designed to ensure that people, who do not want to live in those conditions, did not go anywhere. Because this one message about leaving for Syria is not the end. His entire family will have a monkey on their back, Kadyrovtsy (Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov’s special forces officers – Ed.) will impose pressure on them,” the interlocutor of Kavkaz.Realii explained.
According to the edition, the police of Chechnya have already announced the search for several homosexuals on suspicion of terrorism.
Recall that previously BBC journalists reported that the relatives of the disappeared residents of the Republic were forced to write statements about leaving for Syria. As the CrimeRussia previously wrote, the Chechens disappeared after mass arrests in December-January 2016-2017, which began after the attack on policemen in Grozny on the night of December 17. Novaya Gazeta reported that at least 27 detainees were shot to death.
Information about the hard oppression of gays in Chechnya appeared in Novaya Gazeta in April this year. According to the press, mass purges among homosexuals were held in the Republic. It was also pointed out that secret prisons, where men were held and tortured, operated in the region. In connection with these publications, Tatyana Moskalkova, the Human Rights Ombudswoman in the Russian Federation, applied to law enforcement agencies to verify this information. At the end of June, the Ombudswoman once again stated that she did not receive a single appeal about violations of the rights of LGBT community representatives in Chechnya. Despite this, media publish new stories from gay refugees, who managed to leave the Republic. They talk about tortures and murders, which began in 2009.
A new report released today by the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) and OutRight Action International in collaboration with the Global Platform to Fast Track the Human Rights and HIV Responses with Gay and Bisexual Men argues for a global health and development approach that is inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. Released ahead of this year’s United Nations (UN) High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, the paper calls on countries to recognize and address the impact of stigma, discrimination, violence, and criminalization on health.
In its second year, the High-Level Political Forum is where member states meet to review progress towards “Agenda 2030” – economic, social, and environmental sustainable development, founded on the principle of “leave no one behind.” Among the goals to be reviewed this year is Goal 3, “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages,” which is particularly relevant to LGBTI people. The HLPF will take place at UN headquarters in New York from July 10-19.
While data regarding LGBTI health needs are inadequate and incomplete across the globe, the data that is available demonstrate that the health of LGBTI people is consistently poorer than the general population.
The report highlights:
The disproportionate affect HIV is having on gay and bisexual men and transwomen.
A higher burden of poor mental health among LGBTI people compared to the general population.
A lack of targeted and responsive sexual health information for LGBTI people, which limits their ability to protect themselves and their partners from sexually transmitted infections, particularly as young adults.
The impact of intersecting forms of discrimination faced by LGBTI people based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, ability, class, migration status, and other factors that drive exclusion.
The role that criminalization, anti-LGBTI violence, fear of discrimination, cost, and lack of social support play in impeding access to health services.
MSMGF Executive Director, Dr. George Ayala, commented, “Disproportionate rates of depression, anxiety, homelessness, problem substance use, and suicide among LGBTI people can each be traced back to the stigma, discrimination, and violence they face worldwide. Connection to community, safety, and security offset the devastating effects of social exclusion.”
The report finds that lesbian and bisexual women, transgender people, and intersex people in particular remain ignored and underserved in healthcare systems across the world.
OutRight Action International’s Global Research Coordinator, Dr. Felicity Daly, said, “LGBTI people are well-aware of the health disparities taking hold and stealing lives in their communities, but are being excluded from data collection efforts. As a result, LGBTI communities are rendered invisible and therefore unable to make a convincing case for health financing to address their needs.”
The report offers tangible and accessible recommendations on data and indicators governments can and should collect to monitor LGBTI health needs, including:
Specific recommendations for including LGBTI health and well-being in the agreed upon SDG 3 indicators.
Disaggregating complete and accurate data by sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics, in order to allow for the formation of evidence-based laws and policies that serve to promote and protect LGBTI people’s right to health.
Ensuring funding for community-based and LGBTI-led organizations, which are crucial for collecting data and providing safe, non-judgmental health care to LGBTI people.
Legally prohibiting non-consensual medical procedures, including intersex genital mutilation, forced sterilization, and forced anal examinations enacted upon LGBTI people.
Authors from the report will join representatives from United Nations Development Programme, a representative from the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the UN, and global and regional LGBTI civil society organizations to discuss the necessity of collecting data on LGBTI people at an official UN event during the HLPF on Tuesday, July 11, 2017, at 6:15PM.
The law provides a broad legislative framework for the response to HIV in India and is the first national HIV law in South Asia. The legislation prohibits discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV in a range of settings, including employment, education, housing and health care, as well as with regard to the holding of public or private office, access to insurance and freedom of movement. It also bans unfair treatment of people living with and affected by HIV with regard to accessing public facilities, such as shops, restaurants, hotels, public entertainment venues, public facilities and burial grounds.
“This is an important step forward for people living with and affected by HIV in India and around the world,” said Steve Kraus, Director, UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific. “This legislation begins to remove barriers and empowers people to challenge violations of their human rights.”
Significantly, the legislation contains provisions to increase access to justice for people affected by HIV, including obligations for health-care institutions to establish complaints mechanisms and a health ombudsman supported by special procedures to be followed in courts.
The law also protects the rights of people affected by HIV to informed consent (including for any sterilization procedures), to confidentiality and to a safe working environment, and promotes the delivery of critical harm reduction interventions, including condoms, comprehensive injection safety requirements and opioid substitution therapy.
The process of drafting the legislation began in 2002 and involved consultations with and inputs by various stakeholders, including people living with HIV and affected communities, human rights organizations, government departments and members of parliament, before finally being presented to parliament in 2014. UNAIDS has supported efforts throughout the legislation’s long journey. The law will come into force when it is published in the Official Gazette.
Civil society organizations welcomed the legislation; however, they also voiced concerns over a provision that appeared to limit the government’s obligation to provide HIV treatment.
The government has since announced a “treat all” policy in parliament, guaranteeing free antiretroviral therapy for everyone.
“We declare that anybody tested positive will be treated,” said J.P. Nadda, Indian Minister for Health and Family Welfare. “This is the level of commitment with which we are working and with which we will be going forward.”
HIV treatment not only protects the health of people living with HIV, but also prevents onward transmission of the virus. UNAIDS recognizes everyone’s right to health, which includes the provision of antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV throughout their life.
With 2.1 million people living with HIV in 2015, India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world and the largest in the Asia and the Pacific region.
Support for the HIV bill has been bipartisan. “It has been a long struggle for everyone working towards having an HIV-specific legislation as it would guarantee the right to dignity and non-discrimination for people affected by HIV,” said Oscar Fernandes, Member of Parliament and President of the Forum of Parliamentarians on AIDS in India.
In June 2016, Member States of the United Nations committed in the Political Declaration on Ending AIDS to “promoting laws and policies that ensure the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for children, adolescents and young people, particularly those living with, at risk of and affected by HIV, so as to eliminate the stigma and discrimination that they face.”
UNAIDS urges all governments to fully implement the human rights of people living and affected by HIV, including by providing strong legal protections and implementing programmes to end discrimination and advance access to justice.
Some new details have come out regarding the Chechen law enforcement’s ‘preventive’ raid against LGBT people. It were LGBT people who had managed to flee from the Republic who gave the insight.
Some of the fugitives were willing to share the information with journalists despite fear of doing damage to themselves and their families in Chechnya.
The LGBT people who fled from repressions in Chechnya said there are 2 secret prisons for illegal detentions of offenders, as well as drug addicts and LGBT people who Chechen government sees as an issue, according to the Svoboda Ratio Station.
The raid began in December of 2016, not February of 2017 as earlier reported, according to the fugitives. The law enforcement would usually seize them at home, but sometimes they arrested them at work. Raids were carried out by employees of local departments of internal affairs, Special Rapid Response Team Terek, and Private Security Regiment of the Chechen MIA (also known as the “Neftyanoy Polk” (Rus. “Oil Regiment”), according to the fugitives.
Employees of the abovementioned agencies, as well as those of some other Chechen intelligence agencies, would frame those suspected of homosexuality by contacting them via the Internet. They later abducted and threw them to secret prisons.
Arrested LGBT people were sent to at least 2 such prisons at the end of 2016, according to the Radio Station. One is located in the Town of Argun and the other in the Tsotsi-Yurt village. The Argun prison was organized in a former military commandant’s office, as reported earlier.
Argun military commandant’s office
Many detainees were tortured to get them to inform on all the people they knew. Alternatively, prisoners could simply examine their phone messaging. This made the number of victims grow exponentially.
The 1st raid gradually stopped by the New Year, according to the Radio Station’s sources. However, a new one began in February. There were reports of first murder victims who may have been killed by their families as early as in March. The Radio Station learned about at least 2 such murders. However, the information has not been officially confirmed; the Chechen police does not prosecute for “honor killing”.
It has also been reported that the police covered its tracks in some cases. For example, the Grozny Chechen State TV Company deleted all videos featuring a journalist the police was going after so it would seem the journalist has never existed, as later turned out.
One of the fugitives who referred to himself as “Said” told the Radio Station he got a call from a family member serving in military when Said was in the City of Krasnodar. He demanded Said came back while being upfront about his family having to kill him. Said asked to kill him “remotely” instead. The caller replied he could not promise it; he understood he would be tortured to get him to inform on other people.
More than 30 letters were sent to kavkaz@lgbtnet.org, an e-mail for the victims, after it has been published in the Novaya Gazeta Newspaper, according to Russian LGBT Network Chairperson Tatiana Vinnichenko. The letters were sent by those arrested during the 1st raid and released from the prisons after torturing and those who fled during the 2nd raid. All fugitives are in severe stress, as pointed out by the Radio Station.
“They are in a very tough situation and do not know who to trust and where to flee”, according to Vinnichenko.
May we remind you that arrests and murders of LGBT people in Chechnya were reported by Novaya Gazeta on April 1. The Newspaper reported on at least 3 such murders and dozens of abductions. Muftiate members and 2 famous local TV anchors who had close ties to Kadyrov were among the victims, too. Head of the Chechen Republic’s Media Relations Officer Alvi Karimov and Head of the Chechen Republic’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights member Heda Saratova refuted the accusations almost immediately.
Heda Saratova
Both denied there were either persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya or LGBT people among Chechens. The 2 stated they do not tolerate LGBT people, thus making clear what the national stance on the matter is.
Reports on persecution of LGBT people and reaction of Chechnya spokespeople to such persecution led to a public outcry. The President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights and Amnesty International International Human Rights Organization demanded the Chechen government investigated reports of persecution of LGBT people in the Republic. Later, Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova also asked the Chechnya Prosecutor General’s Office and Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate reports of abduction of LGBT people in Chechnya. On April 8 and 9, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, German Federal Foreign Office, and United States Department of State demanded safety of LGBT people in the Republic.
The new rule will appear in the 2017 edition of the AP Stylebook, which will be available May 31. Poynter interviewed Tiffany Stevens, a reporter at The Roanake Times who identifies as non-binary, about the change. “The fact that it’s being accepted by The Associated Press, that’s super exciting,” said Stevens. “Non-binary people as an identity aren’t recognized in general in America.”
The entry in the stylebook now reads:
“They, them, their In most cases, a plural pronoun should agree in number with the antecedent: The children love the books their uncle gave them.They/them/their is acceptable in limited cases as a singular and-or gender-neutral pronoun, when alternative wording is overly awkward or clumsy. However, rewording usually is possible and always is preferable. Clarity is a top priority; gender-neutral use of a singular they is unfamiliar to many readers. We do not use other gender-neutral pronouns such as xe or ze.”
The entry also includes the following:
“In stories about people who identify as neither male nor female or ask not to be referred to as he/she/him/her: Use the person’s name in place of a pronoun, or otherwise reword the sentence, whenever possible. If they/them/their use is essential, explain in the text that the person prefers a gender-neutral pronoun. Be sure that the phrasing does not imply more than one person.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Commerce for communications related to the Trump Administration’s exclusion of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” recommendations regarding data collection in the American Community Survey. Materials produced from this request will help determine how this shameful decision was made.
HRC President Chad Griffin said, “The Trump Administration has launched a deliberate campaign to erase LGBTQ people from federal data used to inform budgets and policies across the government. Their intent is clear: by denying we exist, the Trump Administration hopes to deny us equality. It won’t work. Today, we’re resolved to be louder and fight even harder, because Donald Trump and Mike Pence #CantEraseUs.”
The Census Bureau issued a statement correcting an earlier version of a report to Congress in which they stated, “inadvertently listed sexual orientation and gender identity as a proposed topic in the appendix.” The correction suggests that the draft report included LGBTQ data collection recommendations or plans. Many federal agencies, including the Census Bureau, have been collecting and/or planning to collect similar data.
This is the Trump Administration’s latest move in a larger campaign to erase LGBTQ people from federal surveys and disrupt programs that provide direct assistance to the LGBTQ community. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services removed a question about sexual orientation from the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants. Earlier this month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew two notices impacting data collection and implementation guidelines for a homelessness prevention initiative targeting LGBTQ youth.
Today, as the United Nations begins its annual gathering on women’s rights, a coalition of international women’s, LGBTQ, and immigrant justice organizations have launched a joint initiative called: No Borders on Gender Justice.
This coalition, participating in the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), highlights that this year’s session takes place under the shadow of escalated anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-Muslim policies of the United States. The organizers point to the new executive order by the Trump Administration, set to take effect this Thursday, as the latest in an exclusionary trend that prevents women from exercising their rights to political participation at UN Headquarters.
Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, spoke out in solidarity with women’s rights activists excluded by these policies. “This is not the time to keep us out of the meeting rooms, out of the decision-making spaces and away from our sisters at CSW,” she said.
An Indigenous Ixil women’s rights activist from Guatemala, who requested not to be named, said, “I was denied a visa to travel to the US for CSW. Coming from Guatemala or from Central America, we know the obstacles and discrimination that have stood in the way of us accessing international spaces in the US, like the UN in New York. This is a barrier to our work for human rights, worsening in this political climate of fear and exclusion.”
Organizers of this initiative have emphasized that the risk extends not only to access to CSW. Also at risk is rights advocates’ access to UN and international advocacy spaces year round. Moreover, those most affected are women and their families, far from UN spaces, who face hate crimes, criminalization, detention and deportation due to xenophobic policies.
The No Borders on Gender Justice initiative seeks to renew strategies to reclaim space to defend the full range of women’s human rights, protest racist and Islamophobic policies that bar access, amplify the demands of those who have been excluded, and deepen collaboration with women most at risk from authoritarianism.
Organizers have also released a platform of principles, available here. The organizations co-sponsoring this initiative are: MADRE, Just Associates (JASS), Center for Women’s Global Leadership, AWID, Urgent Action Fund, Women in Migration Network and OutRight Action International.
Leaders and activists from all over the U.S.A., Canada and Mexico will be coming to San Diego this coming weekend for a meeting of the International Imperial Court Council, the governing body of the International Imperial Court System, which has chapters in over 69 cities in these three countries. The organization was founded in 1965 by World War II veteran Jose Julio Sarria who in 1961 became the first openly-gay candidate to run for public office in North America.
There will be a special announcement coming out of the San Diego meeting, the launching of a civil rights arm of the Imperial Court System: The National GLBT Network U.S.A. The recent national Women’s March drew Court members participating, not only in Washington, D.C., but in cities all across the nation.
“The next four years will be an especially critical time for the LGBT rights movement and our allies,” stated San Diego City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, the new national chair and the executive director of the National GLBT Network U.S.A.
The Imperial Court System within the United States has a long history of civil rights activism. During the 1970s when Anita Bryant launched her homophobic “Save Our Children” crusade in Dade County Fla., the Imperial Courts raised funds and sent them to the Anti-Bryant campaign in Florida. Imperial Court members were very active and involved in anti-homosexual ballot initiatives in Colorado, Oregon and California. In California, the Imperial Courts raised funds and were active against the Sen. John Briggs initiative to ban all homosexual teachers from teaching in public schools.
“We will be working with the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Human Rights Fund, the Victory Fund and other civil rights organizations” stated Scott Seibert, national vice-chair and deputy director from Portland Ore. “The next four years now more than ever all LGBT organizations, clubs and churches must get more involved in our continuing fight for equality.”
Membership in the National GLBT Network U.S.A. is open to all. For further information, please contact:
The Imperial Courts organized and led the successful letter writing campaign and lobbying efforts that resulted in the Harvey Milk U.S. Postage Stamp and the U.S.N.S. Harvey Milk Ship.
In its first few weeks the $4 millionLGBT Rapid Response Fund received more than 235 applications from organizations providing HIV services.
The fund supports organizations working with LGBT in 29 countries in response to situations where HIV services are threatened because of stigma, discrimination or violence.
Grants from $500 to $20,000 are available from the fund which is supported by the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNAIDS.
Sir Elton John said: “This work is badly needed. In a short space of time, the fund received more than 235 applications. Each request makes horribly clear just how much LGBT human rights abuses serve as a barrier to ending AIDS. Now more than ever it’s time for government leaders and philanthropists to join efforts to overcome the anti-LGBT stigma, discrimination and violence that is making the HIV epidemic worse.”
Shaun Mellors, Director Knowledge and Influence at the International HIV AIDS Alliance, said: “Stigma, discrimination and violence mean HIV services for LGBT people and men who have sex with men are regularly prevented from operating.
“Today’s report highlights what’s been achieved in the fund’s first few weeks alone. It has helped re-house people living with HIV targeted after police raids in Uganda; supported homeless people from the LGBT community left without HIV medication after a natural disaster in Jamaica; and supported LGBT groups that have come under threat as a result of state-sponsored crackdowns in East Africa.”
A report that the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas released on Tuesday indicates Uruguay and Argentina are Latin America’s most LGBT-friendly countries.
The 2016 Social Inclusion Index notes Uruguay “has been a leader” in the LGBT rights movement that has gained traction throughout the region over the last decade.
The report notes Uruguay in 2009 became the first country in Latin America to extend adoption rights to same-sex couples.
Gays and lesbians have been able to legally marry in Argentina and Uruguay since 2010 and 2013 respectively. Both countries also allow transgender people to legally change their gender without undergoing surgery.
Argentina and Uruguay are among the countries that contribute to the Global Equality Fund, a public-private partnership to promote LGBT rights around the world that the State Department manages with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Uruguay in July hosted the first global LGBT rights conference to have taken place in Latin America. Uruguayan Minister of Exterior Relations Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Special U.S. Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons Randy Berry and more than 150 activists from around the world were among those who attended the gathering in the country’s capital of Montevideo.
“The laws that the LGBTI social movements of Argentina and Uruguay have achieved over the last few years have allowed for an opening and social inclusion that has contributed to a climate of respect for sexual diversity,” LGBT Federation of Argentina Vice President Esteban Paulón told the Washington Blade in response to the report.
“Public policies that have broken down barriers and extended equality to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people have also been implemented in both countries,” he added. “The report reflects that this combination of legal framework and public policies has, without a doubt, improved the conditions in which the LGBTI community lives and they are the correct path forward for effectively fighting discrimination.”
Marcela Romero of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People, which is known by the Spanish acronym REDLACTRANS, also welcomed the report.
“We consider the inclusion of Uruguay and Argentina in the Council of the Americas’ 2016 Social Inclusion Index as the most LGBT-friendly Latin American countries as very positive,” she told the Blade.
Romero — who is also the president of the LGBT Federation of Argentina and the Crossdressers, Transsexuals and Transgender (People) Association of Argentina — told the Blade that hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity remain problems in both countries.
Diana Sacayán, a prominent Argentine trans rights advocate, was stabbed to death in her Buenos Aires apartment in Oct. 2015. She was the third trans person reported killed in Argentina in the span of two months.
“A lot has been achieved under both countries’ gender identity laws, but trans women still continue to suffer violence and are victims of hate crimes,” Romero told the Blade, referring to Argentina and Uruguay and the report. “We have still not achieved the full recognition of rights, such as access to health and employment opportunities.”
“There is still much work to be done to achieve real equality,” she added. “The policies of these countries should be a model for other Caribbean and Central American countries in which our community faces constant violence, stigma and discrimination and do not have access to their social, economic and cultural rights.”
Index ranks countries on women’s rights, racial equality
The report also ranked countries based on women’s rights, their policies towards ethnic and racial minorities and other factors.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Mari Carmen Aponte speaks at the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas in D.C. on Oct. 24, 2016. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Mari Carmen Aponte on Tuesday noted U.S. embassies and consulates around the world “regularly advocate for the human rights of LGBTI persons.” She conceded there is “considerable work that still needs to be done” to address social exclusion across the region.“Creating more inclusive societies means addressing the multiple forms of discrimination and violence,” said Aponte.
Aponte was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador from 2012 until late last year.
The Central American country that borders Guatemala and Honduras has one of Latin America’s highest murder rates.
Francela Méndez Rodríguez of Colectivo Alejandría, a local trans advocacy group, was murdered in May 2015 while visiting a friend’s home near the Salvadoran capital of San Salvador. Espacio de Mujeres Lesbianas por la Diversidad Sexual, an advocacy group known by the Spanish acronym ESMULES, said their offices were broken into a few weeks later after its executive director publicly denounced the four police officers who attacked a trans activist after he attended a Pride celebration.
