International

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Peru Is Threatening Human Rights Education

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January 24 is the International Day of Education, which celebrates the key role that education plays in ensuring peace, development, gender equality, and human rights. For this year’s celebration, however, there is a dark stain on Peru’s education record: Law No. 31498, which purports to “promote the quality of educational materials and resources.” Congress passed this law in May 2022 effectively giving publicly registered parental organizations supervisory and veto powers over the Education Ministry’s learning materials for early childhood, primary, and secondary schools. These organizations can provide input about, for example, whether the materials respect “the religious liberty and moral convictions” of […]

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Canadians are being asked to host LGBTQ+ Ukrainian refugees

A coalition of activists is launching a new initiative to recruit and support Canadian hosts for LGBTQ+ Ukrainian refugees. Since fleeing their homes, many queer Ukrainian refugees have not felt safe owing to endemic anti-LGBTQ+ prejudices in Eastern Europe. While Ukraine itself has pro-LGBTQ+ laws, its neighbors maintain legal systems that enable, if not actively support, homophobic and transphobic discrimination. Due to these dangers, over 100 LGBTQ+ refugees have asked KyivPride, one of Ukraine’s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, for help with relocation to Canada. With a dire need for hosts, KyivPride launched The Friendly Homes Project (TFHP) earlier this month. The project […]

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U.K. government to veto Scotland’s gender self-recognition law

The British government said Monday it will block a new law that makes it easier for people in Scotland to legally change their gender, sparking conflict with transgender rights advocates and the nationalist Scottish administration in Edinburgh. Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack said he would prevent the bill from getting royal assent — the final formality that makes it law — because of concern it conflicts with “Great Britain-wide equalities legislation.” That legislation, among other things, guarantees women and girls access to single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters. The Scottish government is likely to challenge the decision at the U.K. Supreme Court. […]

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Britain vows new law to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ people

Britain will seek to ban conversion therapy targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, cracking down on so-called treatments that claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Culture minister Michelle Donelan said on Tuesday the government would publish draft legislation soon, setting out proposals to ban conversion practices in England and Wales. “The Bill will protect everyone, including those targeted on the basis of their sexuality, or being transgender,” Donelan said in a statement. Conversion practices, which may include extreme or harmful methods, are aimed at suppressing or preventing a person from being gay or existing as […]

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Egypt: A Year of Whitewashing Despite Dire Crisis

The Egyptian government failed to ease the ongoing repression campaign against critics in 2022 or repeal laws curtailing basic freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. Meanwhile, the government carried out a concerted whitewashing effort to improve the country’s image without enacting critical reforms, including issuing a presidentially sponsored national dialogue and hosting the COP27 UN climate conference in November. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared 2022 the “year of civil society,” but key members of civil society faced arbitrary travel bans, asset freezes, and criminal investigations in retaliation for their peaceful activism or criticism. Despite hosting COP27, the government has imposed arbitrary […]

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Algerian authorities launch pathetic anti-rainbow campaign in bid to ban Pride flags

Officials in Algeria, where homosexuality is illegal, are attempting to stop any use of the Pride flag, according to footage shared online. Video shared on both Twitter and Reddit depicts the police and other officials handing out information pamphlets to the public about LGBTQ+ flags and symbols. A large crowd can be seen gathered around two uniformed officers who are addressing the group about the multi-coloured images.  The papers appear to contain information about the difference between a rainbow – which has seven colours – and a traditional rainbow Pride flag, which has six.  As well as this, the handout […]

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13-year-old boy died by suicide after homophobic bullying at French school

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A 13-year-old boy in France named Lucas died by suicide last Saturday, January 7 after facing anti-LGBTQ+ bullying at school. People close to his family say that the school did little to stop the bullying. The student at the Louis Armand de Golbey middle school in the Vosges department was out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, the French magazine Têtu reports. “He was constantly harassed for the way he dressed, his mannerisms, his presence,” said Stéphanie, a family friend. “He didn’t hide himself and that bothered some people.” She said Lucas was “always pleasant, caring, spontaneous, full of dreams and a […]

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Thousands march for same-sex marriage in New Delhi, India: ‘We are here to celebrate ourselves’

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Thousands of members of India’s LGBTQ+ community and allies have taken to New Delhi streets in protest of same-sex marriage rights.  On Sunday (8 January) more than 2,000 people came together to join the Delhi Queer Pride March after a three-year suspension due to the Covid pandemic.  In their press for equal marriage rights, participants danced to drumbeats as they walked more than an hour to Jantar Mantar area near India’s parliament.  The protestors also carried rainbow flags, balloons and placards in a colourful display intended to get legal recognition to same-sex marriage – as the country inches closer to legalising it. Advertisement Remove […]

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Man found guilty of ‘disturbing’ double rape of young gay woman after claiming sex was consensual

A man has been found guilty of kidnapping and the rape of a young gay woman after claiming to be a taxi driver. 28-year-old Yuseab Woldeab was unanimously found guilty of the double rape after just two hours of deliberation by jury members. The ruling was met with audible cheers from activists in the public gallery who had paid attention to the trial. Plymouth Crown Court heard that Woldeab lured the 20-year-old victim, who was heavily intoxicated, into his car after “prowling the streets looking for a victim”. He then took her back to his address where committed rape “within minutes” […]

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Prominent Kenyan LGBTQ activist ‘brutally killed,’ local rights group says

Kenyan police have discovered the body of a prominent LGBTQ rights campaigner stuffed inside a metal box in the west of the country, local media reported on Friday. Motorbike taxi riders alerted police after they saw the box dumped by the roadside from a vehicle with a concealed number plate, The Standard and The Daily Nation newspapers reported, quoting police sources. Activist Edwin Chiloba’s remains were found on Tuesday near Eldoret town in Uasin Gishu county, where he ran his fashion business, independent rights group the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) said. “He was brutally killed & dumped in the […]

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