• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights

    People around the world face violence and inequality – and sometimes torture, even execution – because of who they love, how they look, or who they are.

    Sexual orientation and gender identity are integral aspects of our selves and should never lead to discrimination or abuse.

    Human Rights Watch works for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people’s rights, with activists representing a multiplicity of identities and issues.

    We document and expose abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity worldwide – including torture, killing and executions, arrests under unjust laws, unequal treatment, censorship, medical abuses, discrimination in health and jobs and housing, domestic violence, abuses against children, and denial of family rights and recognition.

    We advocate for laws and policies that will protect everyone’s dignity. We work for a world where all people can enjoy their rights fully.

    Photo: © The Rainbow Project, Namibia 2001.

  • A lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activist holds a torn poster during clashes with opponents at a rally in Kiev, Ukraine on December 8, 2012.
    © 2012 Reuters
    Ukraine: Investigate Attacks on Peaceful Protest
    The Ukrainian government should condemn homophobic speech and attacks on a peaceful protest in Kiev on December 8, 2012.
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LGBT Rights

  • Cameroon: Three Years in Prison for Love... Impunity for Hate
    Feb 28, 2013
    "This will be bloody." So reads a text message received by a Cameroonian lawyer in October 2012. "Tell your accomplice that nowhere in this country will [his children] have peace." Over the last four months, two Cameroonian lawyers have received a series of death threats by email and SMS. The messages have become increasingly vitriolic, with threats to kill the lawyers, their children, and their clients.
  • Ukraine: EU Should Raise LGBT Rights at Summit
    Feb 21, 2013
    The European Union should urge the Ukrainian government at the upcoming EU-Ukraine summit to end abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Ukraine.
  • Letter to the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission Ahead of the EU-Ukraine Summit
    Feb 21, 2013
  • Letter to Paul Biya, president of the Republic of Cameroon
    Feb 13, 2013
    We are writing to call your attention to a series of death threats received in the last four months by Alice Nkom and Michel Togué, two Cameroonian human rights lawyers who defend clients charged with homosexuality under Cameroon’s article 347 bis. We are deeply concerned by the apparent lack of state action in response to these serious threats.
  • Cameroon: Stop Turning Blind Eye to Death Threats
    Feb 12, 2013
    The government of Cameroon should immediately take action against a series of death threats made over the last four months to two lawyers who represent clients accused of homosexual conduct, Human Rights Watch said today in an open letter to President Paul Biya. Alice Nkom and Michel Togué, Cameroonian human rights lawyers, began receiving death threats in October 2012, in the form of emails and text messages, assailing the lawyers for their work defending clients charged with homosexuality. Consensual same-sex conduct is criminalized under the Cameroonian penal code’s article 347 bis, and at least 28 people have been prosecuted under the law since 2010. Nkom and Togué are among the only lawyers courageous enough to take up these cases in a country where homophobia is pervasive.
  • US: Injustices Filling the Prisons
    Jan 31, 2013

    The enormous prison population in the United States partly reflects harsh sentencing practices contrary to international law, Human Rights Watch said in the US chapter of its World Report 2013.

  • Russia: Reject Homophobic Bill
    Jan 26, 2013
    Vicious attacks on gay rights protesters in Russia in recent days underscores the need for the Russian Duma to reject a draft law on “propaganda for homosexuality.”
  • Letter to Members of the French Parliament
    Jan 21, 2013
    On the eve of your parliamentary debates regarding whether to support marriage equality in France, I invite you to look to another European country that went through the same discussions and soul-searching about 15 years ago. In 1994, as a member of the Dutch parliament, I proposed to introduce marriage equality legislation. Years of debate ensued, in part because nowhere else in the world had such legislation been introduced.
  • France: Approve Marriage Equality
    Jan 21, 2013
    The French National Assembly should approve a bill for marriage equality. Supporters of the government’s plans for marriage equality will hold a demonstration on January 27, 2013, in Paris. More than 300,000 people opposing the measure held a protest on January 13.
  • The Trouble with Tradition
    Jan 11, 2013
    “Tradition!” proclaims Tevye the milkman, in his foot-stomping opening to the musical Fiddler on the Roof. “Tradition!” Tevye’s invocation rings true—what is more reassuring than the beliefs and practices of the past? Which is why the resolution passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in September 2012 seems, at first blush, so benign. Spearheaded by Russia, it calls for “promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms through a better understanding of traditional values of humankind.”
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