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March 16, 2022 News

Joint Letter to Authorities in Kosovo Regarding the Freedom to Marry

March 16, 2022 H.E. President of the Republic of Kosovo, Ms. Vjosa Osmani Office of the President of Kosovo Assembly Building, “Mother Teresa” Square 10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo Prime Minister of the Republic…

A general view of Kosovo's parliament, Kosovo March 22, 2021. © REUTERS/Laura Hasani

February 9, 2022 News

Russian Government Seeks Closure of LGBT Rights Group

Flagrant Political, Homophobic Censorship Violates Human Rights Obligations

This week, Russia's Justice Ministry filed a lawsuit seeking to “liquidate” Sphere Foundation, the legal entity under which the Russian LGBT Network operates, arguing the group’s activities run contrary to “traditional values.” The network works to…

Igor Kochetkov speaking at the European Parliament about persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya.

November 19, 2021 News

Statement by Russian and International Human Rights Organizations in Support of Russian LGBT Rights Activists under Attack

We, the undersigned Russian and international human rights organization condemn the escalating attacks against Russian LGBT Network, its leadership and partners. We call on the Russian authorities to cease targeting the largest and most prominent LGBTI…

Russian blogger, Zhenya Svetski, stands with a sign reading “I am not ‘gay propaganda’” in Moscow, December 2018.

October 18, 2021 News

Australia Moves Closer to Ending Harmful Intersex Surgeries

Rights Body Urges End to Early ‘Normalizing’ Interventions on Children

The Australian Human Rights Commission issued a report today analyzing the persistent practice of medically unnecessary non-consensual surgeries on children born with variations in their sex characteristics. The commission urged authorities to protect…

August 31, 2021 News

No End to Chechnya’s Violent Anti-Gay Campaign

Kidnapping, Interrogation Exposes Brutal Intent

The Russian LGBT Network has reported that in May 2021, Chechen-speaking men abducted Ibragim Selimkhanov in Moscow and forcibly returned him to Chechnya’s capital Grozny, where authorities interrogated him about gay people in the region. This is the…

Campaigners protest for LGBT rights in Chechnya outside the Russian embassy in London, Britain on June 2, 2017.

July 8, 2021 News

Supermarket Chain in Russia Acts LGBT-Inclusive, Then Regrets It

VkusVill Pulls Ad Featuring Lesbian Customers

Last week, VkusVill, a prominent Russian food market chain, ran an online advertisement entitled “Family Happiness Recipe” that featured, among others, a family that included several lesbian women. In Russia, where discrimination against lesbian, gay…

A VkusVill’s market in central Moscow, Russia on July 7th, 2021.

July 6, 2021 News

European Court Upholds Russian Transgender Woman’s Right to Family Life

Discrimination Harms Parents and Children

In a victory for a transgender parent’s right to maintain contact with her children, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on July 6 that Russia’s denial of her visitation violated her rights to family life and freedom from discrimination. The…

Activists participate in the St Petersburg LGBT Pride march on August 12, 2017.

February 9, 2021 News

Ensure safety of two Chechen men arbitrarily detained and forcibly transferred to Chechnya

Joint statement on Russian Federation

9 February 2021 We, the undersigned, express our grave concern over reports that two Chechen men were arbitrarily detained by the police in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod and forcibly transferred to Chechnya. The Russian authorities should…

A victim of the purge telling his story in a safe house in central Russia in April 2017.

September 10, 2020 News

Video Demonstrates Chechnya Leadership’s Brutality

Critic’s Punishment and Disappearance is Met with Moscow’s Silence

A video circulating on Russian social media shows a young man apparently being forced to penetrate himself with a glass bottle: a forced punishment for allegedly helping to “spread lies” about Chechen authorities. It once again highlights the Chechen…

Graphic circulating on Russian social media in support of the Telegram channel "1ADAT".

September 8, 2020 News

Transgender, Third Gender, No Gender: Part II

Rights Perspectives on Laws Assigning Gender

People whose identities do not fit into a rigid female/male gender binary have, in many countries, been on a years-long quest to obtain official documents that reflect their identities by using a non-binary “X” marker in lieu of the typical “F” or “M…

September 8, 2020 News

Transgender, Third Gender, No Gender: Part I

Rights Perspectives on Laws Assigning Gender

Dana Zzymm, an intersex and nonbinary US citizen, has been on a years-long quest to obtain a passport that reflects their identity by using a non-binary “X” marker in lieu of the typical “F” or “M.” They sued to compel the US State…

August 6, 2020 News

Russia: Reject Anti-LGBT ‘Traditional Values’ Bill

Eliminating Legal Recognition for Transgender People Undermines Rights

Update: In October 2020, Russia’s Government Commission on Legislative Activities, the body responsible for reviewing draft legislation, rejected the draft law “aimed at strengthening the institution of the family,” on the grounds that the changes…

The Russian flag flies on a courthouse building in St. Petersburg, Russia, March 15 2020.

July 6, 2020 News

Russia Should Repeal No-Women Jobs List

A Transgender Woman’s Court Victory Highlights the Russian Regulation’s Absurdity

A transgender woman in St. Petersburg, Russia has won a final court battle with a former employer who fired her in 2017 after she changed her legal gender. The woman, known throughout the ordeal by her pseudonym “Anna,” had worked for a decade at a…

July 3, 2020 News

Submission to the European Court of Human Rights in A.M. v. Russia

1. These written submissions are made by Human Rights Watch pursuant to article 36 § 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the European Convention on Human Rights, ECHR) following the leave granted by the…

June 30, 2020 News

Dozens Detained in Russia For Protesting Prosecution of Feminist Activist

Authorities Should End Violations of Freedom of Expression and Assembly

Police in Moscow detained 40 people last weekend for holding peaceful protests in solidarity with a young woman who is facing up to six years in prison for running a feminist blog. On June 9, authorities in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia’s far east…

June 25, 2020 News

Russian Court Rules Transgender Woman’s Firing Unlawful

Fully Repeal Professions Ban on Women

A transgender woman in St. Petersburg, Russia has won a final court battle with a former employer who fired her in 2017 after she changed her legal gender. The woman, known as “Anna,” had worked for a decade as a quality control checker at a…

February 10, 2020 News

Man Killed in Homophobic Attack in Moscow Deserves Justice

LGBT People Lack Equal Protection Under the Law

Last week, the vice-speaker of Russia’s lower chamber of the parliament, Piotr Tolstoi demanded that the country’s constitution explicitly state marriage is a “union between a man and a woman.” “This will create a barrier to…

Edalov (lower) and his partner Evgeny Efimov at a picnic in June 2019, days before he was killed.

February 9, 2020 News

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