Today Greens will call on world leaders to renew efforts to secure the protection of all human rights worldwide at a speech to mark 'IDAHOBIT' (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia).As blog readers will know I have been deeply disappointed by the EU climbdown over outlawing homophobia and ageism - plus we have news that last Saturday police in Moldova have turned a blind eye to harassment at a Moldova Pride march.
Dr Caroline Lucas, Green MEP, has noted that there is increasing evidence that universal human rights are being eroded in the face of international appeasement of conservative regimes: “We developed a near-universal system of global human rights protection in the 20th Century, a legal regime designed to stamp out discrimination and harassment – but in the first decade of this century we have seen that system repeatedly undermined. There remain 77 countries around the world where the ‘crime’ of being homosexual is still punishable by imprisonment, or even execution, and this is a direct affront to international human rights law."
The theme for this year's event is 'women' – it is often lesbian and bisexual women who are bearing the brunt of this state-sponsored discrimination, with the full knowledge and complicity of the British government. The case of lesbian Pegah Emambakhsh is a recent example - the Home Office wants to deport her to Iran where she faces arrest and possibly
stoning to death for her sexual orientation.
It is perhaps no surprise that some of the world's most conservative regimes, like those in Iran, China and Eastern Europe, continue to harass, abuse and discriminate against their citizens on the basis of their sexuality - but that our government here in the UK isn't challenging this daily is unacceptable.
As Caroline Lucas said: “It's time for a renewed campaign to persuade our government to take human rights seriously – and to make fighting to stamp out all forms of discrimination a bedrock of British foreign policy.”
And as Jean Lambert, Green MEP said: "IDAHO gives us all the opportunity to celebrate diversity. The European Union should now ensure that all LGBT individuals can live free from
oppression. I urge everyone who is supporting IDAHO 2008 to also sign the
www.signtostopdiscrimination.org petition."
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Speaking at the London IDAHO event on 16 May, hosted by Amnesty
International and the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association, Peter
Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! and a Green party human rights spokesperson said:
"Since 1999, the Labour government has repealed most of Britain's
anti-gay laws and introduced new legislation to recognise same-sex
partnerships and protect LGBT people against discrimination.
"These positive lesbian and gay rights measures are being undermined
by Labour's failure to tackle the homophobic and transphobic bias of
the asylum system.
"The government seems more interested in cutting asylum numbers than
in ensuring fairness and justice for LGBT refugees who have fled
arrest, imprisonment, torture, vigilante attacks and attempts to kill
them.
"We need urgent government action to implement five key policy changes:
"First, all asylum staff and adjudicators should receive sexual
orientation and transgender awareness training. They currently receive
race and gender training but no training at all on sexual orientation
and gender identity issues. As a result, they often make stereotyped
assumptions: that a feminine woman can't be a lesbian or that a
masculine man cannot be gay. They sometimes rule that someone who has
been married must be faking their homosexuality.
"Second, the government should issue explicit instructions to all
immigration and asylum staff, and to all asylum judges, that
homophobic and transphobic persecution are legitimate grounds for
granting asylum. The government has never done this, which signals to
asylum staff and judges that claims by LGBT people are not as worthy
as those based on persecution because of a person's ethnicity, gender,
politics or faith.
"Third, the official Home Office country information reports - on
which judges often rely when ruling on asylum applications - must be
upgraded and expanded to reflect the true scale of anti-LGBT
persecution. At the moment, the government's documentation of anti-gay
and anti-transgender persecution in individual countries is often
partial, inaccurate and misleading. It consistently downplays the
severity of victimisation suffered by LGBT people in violently
homophobic countries like Uganda, Egypt, Iran, Cameroon, Iraq,
Palestine and Saudi Arabia.
"Fourth, legal aid funding for asylum claims needs to be substantially
increased. Existing funding levels are woefully inadequate. This means
that most asylum applicants - gay and straight - are unable to prepare
an adequate submission at their asylum hearing. Their solicitors don't
get paid enough to procure the necessary witness statements, medical
reports and other vital corroborative evidence.
"Fifth, the Home Office needs to issue official instructions to asylum
detention centre staff that they have a duty to stamp out anti-gay and
anti-trans abuse, threats and violence. Many LGBT detainees report
suffer victimisation, and say they fail to receive adequate protection
and support from detention centre staff. These shortcomings need to be
remedied by LGBT awareness training to ensure that detention centre
staff take action against homophobic and transphobic perpetrators, and
that they are committed to protect LGBT detainees who are being
victimised.
"Labour's claim to be a LGBT-friendly government rings hollow when it
continues to fail genuine LGBT refugees. We must insist on an asylum
system that is fair, just and compassionate – for LGBT refugees and
for all refugees," said Mr Tatchell.
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