Karar Nushi, an Iraqi model well known for his long blond hair and flamboyant clothing, was found dead in Baghdad on July 2, 2017. Nushi was reportedly tortured and stabbed, and his body mutilated. His attackers also cut his hair. Indeed, friends of Nushi believe he was murdered by an armed group because of his long hair.
For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, who are often pushed to the social margins, hair can be an especially significant form of self-expression. Styling can signal group affiliation, or simply distance from the mainstream. But in repressive settings, hairstyles can also be a liability, visible markers of difference, and even a catalyst for violence. In some contexts in Iraq, hair can trigger egregious acts of cruelty by armed groups, and, in numerous instances, even death.
Nushi’s case is one among many others Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented in a recently published report on Iraqi armed groups’ killings, abductions, torture, and sexual violence against LGBT people. In numerous accounts, the attackers shaved their victims’ hair, or demanded that they sign documents pledging they would cut their hair.
Springing up amid the breakdown of security after the US-led 2003 invasion, armed groups in Iraq feed on poverty when recruiting members, offering unemployed men a job and the prospect of gaining power and influence through violence. Although many armed groups in Iraq have claimed to be enforcers of their interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law), a Human Rights Watch report demonstrated how a 2009 killing campaign of men suspected of same-sex conduct, led by Iraqi armed group members, violated standards in Sharia law for legality, proof, and privacy. Stretching over the last two decades, violence directed against LGBT people in Iraq can be understood in the context of patriarchal social norms, the low social status of women, and a culture of impunity.
In Iraq’s environment of persistent violence, why would armed groups pay such close attention to something as seemingly inconsequential as a hairstyle? As many people told HRW, hairstyles are an important symbol of compliance and conformity with social norms and gender roles.
Policing hair has become a part of a crude enforcement of gender norms among some powerful armed groups in Iraq. When hairstyles publicly signal difference by breaking with rigid gender roles, they symbolise a perceived threat to the social order and an affront to authority.
Last year, an 18-year-old gay man was stopped by an armed group called Hashd al-Atabat in Karbala governorate in central Iraq. He was told it was due to his “shameful appearance,” in this case: having long hair. He said, “after the armed group’s leader came, he told his men to cut my hair and then let me go.”
Of the 54 LGBT people interviewed, 48 said that unconventional hairstyles were regarded by armed groups as a punishable offense. This means that men and transgender women with long hair, or women and transgender men with short hair, were perceived as deviant and hence more likely to be targeted. The consequences of having non-normative hairstyles can range from arrest to torture, rape, and even death.
Ahmad Majed al-Mutairi, known as Hammoudi, had been targeted and shot by suspected armed groups in 2018 due to his long hair. Hammoudi was popular on social media for posting pictures highlighting his feminine appearance. He was only 14 when he was murdered. A video of his gruesome murder circulated widely on social media. The attackers can be heard taunting him with homophobic slurs as Hammoudi, bleeding from his abdomen, pleads to see his mother.
These violent attacks are not new. In 2012 HRW documented attacks directed against young people who participated in “emo” subculture, based on a form of alternative rock music, characterized by a distinctive style of dress, and unconventional haircuts. In the wake of systematic and fatal attacks, panicked “emos” scrambled to change their wardrobes and cut their hair.
Gender nonconforming hairstyles are also conflated with homosexuality, which is further construed as inherently anti-Islamic and pro-Western. One of the documented forms of punishments in the attacks on LGBT people is rape—and in particular male attackers sexually assaulting male subjects as a form of punishment for consensual same-sex activity, or gender non-conformity. Anti-sodomy laws which were reintroduced in Iraq in 1919 during the British Mandate, after the Ottoman Empire abolished them in 1858, and are still in use today.
Some police and members of armed groups mete out brutal punishments that leave permanent scarring; those carried out in public are intended as a clear message to others. That message is that difference and freedom of expression outside of stereotypical gender roles will not be tolerated.
No one should be punished for how they style their hair. In addition to protecting LGBT people from violence, the Iraqi government should undertake public campaigns to end stigma against LGBT people and work with ministries, institutions, and civil society to raise awareness about respecting diversity in gender norms, including free expression through hairstyles.
When FIFA convenes its 72nd Congress in Doha, Qatar, on March 31, 2022, in preparation for the World Cup, journalists, football associations, fans, and others should press both FIFA officials and Qatari authorities about human rights in the Gulf state, particularly the rights of migrant workers, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.
Since 2010, human rights organizations, trade unions, and media have consistently documented the rampant human rights abuses in the country, especially against migrant workers, including widespread wage theft, high recruitment fees, unexplained deaths, and passport confiscation, among others. While Qatar has introduced several reforms with much fanfare, they came too late, have proven to be woefully inadequate, and are poorly enforced. Similarly, the authorities have made no serious reforms to the severe discrimination in law and practice against women and LGBT people.
Despite repeated warnings and concrete evidence of rights violations, FIFA has not used its leverage or authority to pressure Qatar to follow through on its reform promises. Instead, FIFA has covered up for Qatar’s slow progress and championed the authorities’ reform narrative built around worker welfare that clearly does not reflect the reality for migrant workers.
FIFA has also failed to effectively push back on other repressive laws on press freedom, LGBT rights, and women’s rights. Not only has FIFA been a dismal steward for protecting and promoting human rights in Qatar, failing to use its leverage to truly push for football as a “force for good,” but it has also failed to fulfill its own human rights obligations under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the Guiding Principles) that were adopted in 2016. As per the Guiding Principles, FIFA should step up and make reparations to the thousands of migrant workers or their families who experienced abuses, including unexplained deaths, to make the World Cup 2022 possible.
The FIFA decision to award Qatar with hosting the 2022 World Cup has been itself mired in controversy, starting with US Department of Justice allegations that FIFA officials were bribed to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup. FIFA made the decision despite the country’s poor human rights record and its massive infrastructure deficit, knowing it would rest on vulnerable migrant workers to build.
In March 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that workers at Bin Omran Trading and Contracting (BOTC), a prominent Qatari trading and construction firm, had not received their salaries for up to five months. BOTC’s projects include landscaping and underground utility works for Al Bayt Stadium, where the opening match will be held.
Indeed, Human Rights Watch research reveals that wage theft remains a systemic failure in Qatar with many employers getting away with it. Workers are still forced to pay exorbitant recruitment fees to secure jobs in Qatar, between US$700 and $2,600. This means they are already in debt before they arrive in Qatar, making them vulnerable to abuse and debt bondage.
Companies often withhold contractually guaranteed overtime payments and end-of-service benefits, and they regularly violate their contracts with migrant workers with impunity. In the worst cases, workers said, employers have simply stopped paying their wages, and the workers have often struggled to buy food.
Such abuses persist despite several reforms that Qatar has introduced since 2015 to improve wage protection for migrant workers. The government’s Wage Protection System (WPS), designed to ensure that workers receive their salaries through direct bank transfer by the seventh day of every month, allows the government to monitor wage payments and to impose sanctions on employers for noncompliance.
The Worker’s Support and Insurance Fund, which became fully operational in 2020, was established specifically to ensure that workers are paid wages they are owed when companies fail to pay or go out of business.
However, Human Rights Watch found that the Wage Protection System does little to protect wages and can be better described as a wage monitoring system with significant gaps in its oversight capacity. The authorities have yet to fully dismantle the causes for wage theft, which lie with the kafala (sponsorship) system; deceptive recruitment practices including high recruitment fees; and business practices including the so-called “pay when paid” clause, which allows the subcontractor to delay payments to workers until the subcontractor is paid and leaves migrant workers vulnerable to payment delays in supply chain hierarchies.
Had Qatar addressed the real causes of wage theft and had its announced reforms been well enforced, the WPS would have flagged companies like BOTC, which would have faced sanction, while workers would have been paid in a timely manner using the Workers Support and Insurance Fund. Instead, unpaid workers have been protesting collectively despite the risks, given that Qatar prohibits worker strikes.
One of the most prominent rights issues since Qatar was awarded the World Cup hosting rights in 2010 is the unexplained deaths of thousands of migrant workers.
Despite the global attention and consistent pressure on Qatari authorities for transparency, they have failed to publicize sufficient data on worker deaths. The numbers in the public discourse therefore vary widely. Qatari authorities say that the number of non-Qatari deaths between 2010 and 2019 is 15,021 for all ages, occupations, and causes. But because the data is neither disaggregated nor comprehensive, it is difficult to do any meaningful analysis on migrant worker deaths.
A Guardian investigation shows that between 2010 to 2020, there were over 6,751 deaths in Qatar of people from just five South Asian countries, which were neither categorized by occupation nor place of work. According to a recently commissioned report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), there were 50 work-related deaths in Qatar in 2020, and these have been disaggregated by key characteristics such as places of injury and death and the underlying cause where available.
Despite the widespread criticism, the authorities have dragged their feet in making comprehensive data on deaths of migrant workers publicly available. FIFA, too, has not used its leverage to push for more transparency around migrant deaths, but instead made erroneous remarks about them. According to media reports, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has even suggested that there have been just three work-related deaths in FIFA stadiums in Qatar, an incredible claim that is lower than even what Qatari authorities have announced.
According to the Guardian investigation, 69 percent of the deaths of migrant workers from India, Nepal, and Bangladesh between 2010 and 2020 were attributed to “natural causes.” A fifth of the 50 work-related deaths from 2020 were attributed to “unknown causes,” the ILO reported. According to Qatar’s Supreme Committee’s Workers’ Welfare progress reports, 18 of the 33 fatalities recorded between October 2015 and October 2019 attribute the cause of death to “natural causes,” “cardiac arrest,” or “acute respiratory failure,” terms that obscure the underlying cause of deaths, such as heat stress, and make it impossible to determine whether they may be related to working conditions.
When deaths are attributed to “natural causes” and categorized as non-work-related, Qatar’s labor law denies families compensation, leaving many of them destitute in the absence of their often-sole income provider. For a country with a highly advanced healthcare system, it is unfathomable that transparent data on worker deaths is not available and meaningful investigations of deaths have not been conducted but are simply attributed to “unknown” or “natural causes.” This does not prevent future deaths nor provide any consolation to the grieving families who are left in the dark.
Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, FIFA too has the responsibility to provide reparations for abuses it caused or contributed to. As an entity that has immense resources, it has no excuse not to fulfill its obligations. In 2014, for example, the qualifying rounds and final tournament brought FIFA US$4.6 billion, with profits amounting to over $2 billion.
National football associations, which can be tarnished by association with rights abuses, also have leverage over FIFA that they can and should use. No player would want to be a complacent participant in a tournament that has caused such immense loss of migrant workers’ lives and livelihoods. It is encouraging that many national associations have started speaking up on the issue and should continue to push for tangible commitments including reparations to those who were subject to wage theft and to families who lost loved ones. This would ensure that thousands of families of migrants who lost their lives in Qatar while making the games possible are not left with nothing.
Human Rights Watch has obtained a circular from Qatar’s Public Works Authorities requesting companies to reduce their migrant labor workforce from September 21, 2022 to January 18, 2023. As per the circular, “All Contractors shall prepare a strategic plan for workers’ leave which maximizes the reduction in the number of workers in the country during the period. It should not adversely impact the migrant worker’s well-being and established RPD [Roads Project Department] projects’ targets and objectives.” According to Migrant Rights, construction companies – primarily subcontractors – also shared that the directive has been communicated to them informally.
Migrant workers hired for jobs in Qatar do not have the luxury to take unpaid leave for extended periods. A large majority of workers, especially the recently hired ones, have outstanding loans associated with their illegally imposed recruitment fees that will continue to pile up during the months they are back home if they are not paid. The wages in Qatar are also how workers and their families make ends meet on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis without any savings or support system to draw from. Workers who face early dismissal or whose contracts will not be renewed should be allowed time to find another employer in the country. All such workers should be paid all their outstanding payments due, including for any untaken vacation time, wages, overtime pay, end-of-service payments, and any severance pay.
It is important for Qatari authorities and companies to clearly communicate to workers the details of the arrangement, with strong systems in place to ensure that companies do not take undue advantage of the situation to cheat workers.
Just as the construction phase of the World Cup has rested almost entirely on the backs of migrant workers, who comprise over 95 percent of the Qatari workforce, the delivery of the World Cup will also be almost entirely dependent on migrant workers. They will serve players, fans, and other visitors as waiters, hotel workers, shop staff, housekeepers, stadium workers, security guards, and drivers. Recent evidence has shown that hotel workers and security guards have continued to pay high recruitment fees. Every worker that a fan or a player comes across could, therefore, potentially be a victim of some form of abuse, such as paying exorbitantly for the jobs.
The Worker Welfare Standards from the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup organizer, were originally developed for the construction sector, but have been extended to the hospitality sector. Stakeholders have come together to develop a guidance tool for fair recruitment and employment for the hospitality sector in Qatar that hotels are expected to follow.
Proper due diligence by national football associations is key to ensuring that they do not contribute to or are associated with the abuses. However, it is also important for news media to be aware that they should not have a narrow focus when covering how migrant workers are treated. Just as some coverage has focused on stadium workers who comprised only 1.5 percent of the migrant workforce, media focus should not be limited to service workers in companies serving elite visitors like players and coaches. Conditions for workers serving elite visitors will undoubtedly be under disproportionately higher scrutiny and standards, but they will be a tiny proportion of the total service sector workforce that will directly or indirectly cater to the 1.2 millionvisitors expected to visit Qatar for the tournament.
Migrant workers in Qatar are part of the estimated 3 billion viewers of the World Cup who, in addition, also were indispensable in making the World Cup in Qatar possible. A good illustration of the popularity of the game among migrant workers in Qatar is captured in the documentary The Worker’s Cup.
Now that fans are flocking in from all over the world, migrant workers’ freedom of movement should be respected. They should not be restricted to parts of the country or in cramped labor camps or worse, sent back to their home countries, out of the sight of visitors who would otherwise be appalled if they got a glimpse of their living conditions.
Football is often called “the beautiful game,” which means there should be no discrimination among fans, whether they are low-paid workers who built and serviced the stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup or visitors who bought the most expensive tickets and flew in from afar. Migrant workers and visitors should be allowed to mingle with each other. Visitors, including journalists wanting to report on the migrant worker situation, fans, and stakeholders like national football associations, sponsors, and rights organizations should not be restricted from visiting labor camps.
Qatari authorities require women to obtain permission from their male guardians to marry, study abroad on government scholarships, work in many government jobs, travel abroad until certain ages, and receive some forms of reproductive health care. Some hotels require women to have a male guardian or be married to book and stay in a hotel room. Some events, such as concerts where alcohol is served, even ban Qatari women from attending. Such policies are discriminatory and facilitate violence against women.
Qatar moreover, has no domestic violence law and women who attempt to flee abuse can be returned to abusive families, arrested, or sent to psychiatric hospitals. A lack of transparency over discriminatory rules makes it difficult for women to challenge them. Women in Qatar have appealed to the authorities to repeal such laws. However, repressive laws limiting freedom of expression and association, government intimidation, and online harassment prevent women from challenging such rules or punish them when they do. There are no independent women’s rights organizations.
The authorities have made no serious reforms to the severe discrimination in law and practice they impose against women, affecting Qatari women and the many foreign women who live in the country. The authorities should eliminate all discriminatory male guardianship rules and practices, pass anti-discrimination law to end discrimination in practice, and repeal laws and practices that limit women’s civic participation to demand their own rights.
Qatari authorities criminalize extramarital sex, which disproportionately affects women, who can be prosecuted if they report rape and because pregnancy serves as evidence of the so-called crime. The penalties for these offenses are some of the harshest in the region, with up to seven years in prison, and floggings if they are Muslim. Police often do not believe women who report violence. Women are also required to show a marriage certificate to access certain forms of sexual and reproductive healthcare.
At major sporting events like the World Cup, the risk of sexual violence increases greatly, not just for fans, but particularly for migrant women in low-paid sectors. A Mexican woman who was a Supreme Committee official reported a physical assault by a man to the police in Qatar in June 2021. Instead of getting protection and justice, she found herself accused of the so-called crime of extramarital sex because the man claimed to be in a relationship with her, which she denied. Even though she managed to leave the country, the authorities proceeded to prosecute her on this charge and she remains on trial. Qatar should repeal legal provisions criminalizing extramarital sex, including article 281 of the Penal Code. The authorities should ensure support for survivors of sexual violence including medical, legal, and psychosocial – mental health assistance, and including emergency contraception, sexual health checks, and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. The authorities should allow all women access to sexual and reproductive health care without requiring a marriage certificate and should ensure that police and prosecutors have gender-responsive training.
Qatar has assured prospective visitors that it will welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) visitors and that fans will be free to fly the rainbow flag at the games. However, prospective visitors including LGBT fans have been deterred from attending the games, as shared by the English Football Association Manager, Gareth Southgate based on his discussion with English fans.
People who have experienced government repression have told Human Rights Watch that the Qatari government surveils and arrests LGBT people based on their online activity. The authorities also censor traditional media related to sexual orientation and gender identity, including people who show support for LGBT individuals. They have effectively excluded LGBT content from the public sphere.
Suggestions that Qatar should temporarily suspend domestic laws and state practices during the games would reinforce the idea that same-sex desire and gender variance are a peculiar preoccupation of outsiders. That leaves LGBT residents of Qatar struggling to navigate their sexuality and gender identity in a repressive environment that risks resuming in full after the World Cup.
As Qatar advances its surveillance capabilities, including inside football stadiums, the possibility of LGBT Qataris being persecuted for publicly supporting LGBT rights will remain long after the international fans leave. Physical and virtual spaces free from surveillance are vanishing in Qatar as its data protection law allows broad exemptions that undermine the right to privacy. Digital targeting is combined with laws that target people based on consensual sexual conduct outside of marriage.
Long-term legal reform should prioritize the realities of LGBT residents of Qatar, including by introducing legislation that protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, online and offline. The Qatari government should repeal article 285 and all other laws that criminalize consensual sexual relations outside of marriage.
Press freedom is curtailed in Qatar, which ranked 128 on the World Press Freedom list for 2021. Qatar also introduced an amendment to its penal code that imposes up to five years of prison for spreading rumors or false news with ill intent. It is not clear who determines what is a “rumor” or “fake news,” and what standards they will use in making such a determination.
In November 2021, two Norwegian journalists investigating migrant worker issues in Qatar were arrested and detained for 36 hours. Film showing evidence of the migrant worker situation in Qatar was destroyed. Separately, the same month, another Norwegian journalist was also held in solitary confinement for 24 hours. Such cases are common in Qatar, posing a credible threat to the narrative that the country is trying to build through its heavy public relations machinery.
Similarly, migrant workers who speak up about their realities and become important sources of information are also at great risk of immediate and arbitrary detention or deportation. Over the last year alone, Qatari authorities forcibly disappeared the Kenyan labor activist Malcolm Bidali before releasing him, and put Abdullah Ibhais, a Jordanian former employee of the Supreme Committee, on trial for bribery and misuse of funds, which some evidence suggests was in retaliation for his criticism of the poor conditions for migrant workers.
Qatar should have had every expectation of massive global media interest and coverage over the decade leading up to the World Cup and in the year of the tournament. It should not come as a surprise to Qatari authorities or FIFA that journalists who come to Qatar during the tournament will be interested in stories beyond the matches and who scores goals. They should be ensured that they will be safe and allowed to do their work with little interference. They should face no undue restrictions to report on social or economic issues should they wish to do so. Similarly, fans and other supporters should also not face any safety concerns for posting openly on social media platforms.
If Qatar and FIFA do indeed believe their own reform narrative, they should see the arrival of thousands of journalists and commentators from all over the world to the country as an important opportunity to bear witness to the positive transformation, not restrict their access or suppress their voices.
In a major judgment issued this week, a United Nations treaty body called on Sri Lanka’s government to repeal its law criminalizing adult, consensual same-sex conduct – including between women.
The case was brought under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, an LGBT rights activist who faced harassment and discrimination for her sexual orientation and human rights advocacy on behalf of sexual and gender minorities.
The judgment by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concerned Sri Lanka’s Penal Code, a relic of British colonial rule that dates to 1883. Section 365 punishes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” with up to 10 years in prison and a fine. Section 365A punishes “any act of gross indecency” with up to two years in prison and a fine.
These provisions are widely understood to criminalize consensual sex between same-sex partners. Section 365A originally criminalized same-sex relations between men; however, the provision was amended in 1995 after the law was criticized for being discriminatory on the basis of sex, to include same-sex relations between women.
Many countries only criminalize same-sex relations between men, and at least 38 countries criminalize same-sex conduct regardless of sex or expressly criminalize sexual conduct between women. At least 10 countries have, since 1986, explicitly enacted laws that criminalize sex between women as well as men, sometimes perversely framing this as a gesture toward equality – such as in the case of Sri Lanka.
Around the world, laws that criminalize same-sex relations are being repealed as courts and governments recognize they are discriminatory and harmful – including the Indian Supreme Court striking down penal code section 377 in 2018.
In a 2016 report, Human Rights Watch documented that Sri Lanka’s penal code casts a shadow over LGBT people’s lives, impacting their ability to access health care and housing, and creates pressure to conceal and conform their identities.
The CEDAW committee judgment noted that “the criminalization of same-sex sexual activity between women in Sri Lanka has meant that [Flamer-Caldera] has had difficulties with finding a partner, has to hide her relations and runs the risk of being investigated and prosecuted in this context.”
With this call for change from the CEDAW committee, Sri Lanka should urgently repeal its outdated and discriminatory law.
In February news circulated that a 23-year-old transgender woman, Doski Azad, had been killed by her brother in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. I read the news, having just concluded my research on armed groups’ killings, abductions, torture, and sexual violence against LGBT people in Iraq, and thought, how can LGBT people get justice and accountability when they can be killed and abused with impunity, even in their own homes?
Over the past six months, I interviewed 54 LGBT Iraqis who have survived harrowing violence at the hands of Iraqi armed groups and the police. Some of them also had intimate knowledge of other LGBT Iraqis who had been killed or disappeared by armed groups due to their gender presentation or perceived sexual orientation.
Our new report documents 8 abductions, 8 attempted murders, 4 extrajudicial killings, 27 instances of sexual violence, 45 threats to rape and kill, and 42 cases of online targeting by armed units within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), groups nominally under the prime minister’s control since 2016, against LGBT people in Iraq. In eight cases, abuses by armed groups and police were against children as young as 15. In thirty-nine cases, the victims were able to identify the armed group behind the attack against them.
The numbers are most likely much higher. The attackers are known. Yet, as with so many killings and disappearances in Iraq, the perpetrators have not been held accountable.
Many of the people I interviewed were young enough to have just graduated from high school, yet the fear and isolation they described stretched as far as they could remember. Most had never spoken to anyone about what had happened to them. I found myself on several occasions setting aside my interview questions and just talking to them. I listened to a 27-year-old gay man describe how his boyfriend was tortured in front of him. “Then they shot him five times,” he said.
The story of one 21-year-old gay man stayed with me. He survived an attempt to kill him in November 2019, while three masked men stabbed the friend who was with him to death. He told me, gasping for breath, “They kept screaming: ‘Faggot! Faggot! You are faggot scum and deserve to die.’ One of them stabbed me in the shoulder, and I still don’t know how, but I ran for my life.”
His own father broke both his knees while beating him with a baton after he found him chatting with a man online. He said his father forces him to work at a family-owned laundromat for 16 hours per day in an underground room he called “a dungeon.” His father gives him leftovers from others’ plates and had previously thrown food in the garbage and told him to find it there.
Or the 31-year-old Iraqi transgender woman who was on her way home from work when six men in a Hummer with tinted windows stopped her next to a garbage dump in Baghdad. “They pulled out a razor blade and a screwdriver and poked and cut me all over, especially my ass, crotch, and thighs,” she said. “They sliced me up and poured around five liters of gasoline all over my body and face and set me alight….”
Her neighbors rescued her. Today, scars from her burns stretch from her neck to her feet. “They wanted me dead,” she said. “They have constrained my body, and I cannot love or be loved….I even contemplated suicide.”
Another transgender woman who had been kidnapped, tortured, and gang-raped in June 2020 by a PMF group, told me that after her abduction she stopped eating, failed her university exams, and attempted suicide. “I feel like the walking dead,” she said.
Where does justice begin for these individuals? No Iraqi laws protect LGBT Iraqis from violence. In fact, some provisions of Iraq’s Penal Code, like articles 41(1) and 128, empower attackers against them under the pretext of “honor,” knowing that the attackers can and most likely will get away with it. All of the people I interviewed said they would not report violence against them to the authorities because they are terrified that they would be targeted again, dismissed by the police, or detained.
The Iraqi government is responsible for ending the bloodshed and impunity, and it should start by investigating all reports of violence by armed groups or others against all victims including LGBT people and publicly condemning all such violence. The justice system should prosecute and appropriately punish those found responsible.
The government should take all measures to end torture, disappearances, summary killings, and other abuses based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, and compensate the families of all victims of unlawful killings and survivors of serious abuse. Justice only begins there.
This month, lawmakers in Indiana voted to advance a bill that would prohibit transgender girls from playing sports with other girls. This discriminatory and harmful bill quickly gained traction even though there doesn’t seem to be any issue in Indiana with transgender girls participating in athletics.
Efforts to bar transgender girls from participating in school sports are profoundly misguided. Proponents of these bills narrowly fixate on the possibility that some transgender girl might potentially outperform her cisgender peers. To avoid that scenario, they cruelly prevent transgender kids from participating at all.
This marks transgender children as different from a young age and deprives them of the physical and social benefits that athletics in schools are meant to provide. The result can be devastating, particularly for children who might already struggle with exclusion and isolation in school.
Yet bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young people in Indiana is a real problem – and Indiana hasn’t taken meaningful steps to address it. Lawmakers haven’t even scheduled a hearing for a pending bill that would prohibit discrimination in education based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and protect children from being punished for who they are.
This winter, I’ve spoken to LGBT students in Indiana who described how difficult school environments can be. One young woman told me that she regularly heard anti-LGBT slurs at her high school, and never heard positive messaging about LGBT issues in the classroom. Even though her school had a gay-straight alliance, she didn’t join because she feared the repercussions of coming out at school.
Now in college, she said that being able to come out to others had “a huge impact on my mental health, just being able to be fully myself to everyone around me.”
But lawmakers in Indiana and elsewhere are stifling, not encouraging, that sense of safety and self-worth. Dozens of states are advancing restrictions on transgender children in schools – limiting which bathrooms they can use, what sports they can play, and whether they can learn about themselves in class.
These attacks take an enormous toll on the mental health of LGBT youth, even when they don’t become law. Young transgender people take notice when lawmakers attack and demonize them in public, and understandably lose faith in the adults who are supposed to protect them when those adults fail to stand up for their rights.
Other states have adopted laws to address the mistreatment that LGBT students face. In 17 states, legislation expressly prohibits discrimination against LGBT students in schools, and 21 states expressly prohibit bullying on those grounds. Other states have adopted regulations or teacher codes addressing discrimination and bullying. Indiana has done neither.
Supporting young people shouldn’t be controversial. If lawmakers in Indiana genuinely care about student well-being, they should take meaningful steps to address bullying, discrimination, and mental health challenges for LGBT students – and should abandon legislation that would make those things worse.
Last week a court in Cameroon handed down a 6-month prison sentence and fine of 650,000 CFA (US$1,106) to one of the perpetrators of a violent attack on an intersex person last year in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital. The court’s decision reflects growing recognition of the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people in Cameroon, including their right to be protected from violence.
In the aftermath of the attack, police arrestedone man, but released him without charge after 48 hours. No other arrests were made. On November 16, 2021, the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), a human rights organization advocating for LGBTI people, filed a complaint with the police on behalf of Sara as a victim of assault, battery, and inhuman and degrading treatment.
In a positive move, police responded to CAMFAIDS’s complaint and opened a fresh investigation into the attack. That investigation led to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect who was convicted and sentenced in Yaoundé on February 25.
Even though it is unlikely the other perpetrators will ever be caught or face jail time, Sara’s lawyer, Michel Togue, made the point: “It sends a strong message that violence against people because of their sexual orientation is wrong and leads to consequences for the perpetrators.”
Sexual relations between people of the same sex are criminalized in Cameroon and punished with up to five years in prison. In a November 26, 2021 press conference, Said René Emmanuel, Cameroon’s communication minister, condemned violence against LGBTI people, breaking the silence which has for too long surrounded attacks like the one against Sara. The minister’s statement coupled with this important court decision represent small but meaningful steps in acknowledging that LGBTI people’s lives are valued and the state has an obligation to protect them.
As Cameroon’s authorities are slowly recognizing these obligations, they should repeal the law criminalizing same-sex conduct and protect the rights of Cameroon’s LGBTI population on an equal basis with others and in line with international standards.
The human rights and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan threatens everyone there, but lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and other sexual and gender minorities, face an acute threat of violence and even death from the Taliban authorities. These people find hope in Rainbow Railroad, a nongovernmental organization that helps LGBT people flee across borders to safety.
Rainbow Railroad has a mandate to help LGBTQI+ persons facing persecution find pathways to safety. We’ve been doing this work since 2006. We’re based in Canada and the United States, and we have been successful in helping nearly 2,000 people.
How did you find yourself in this line of work?
I’ve been invested in social justice for most of my career. But my own background gives me an affinity for Rainbow Railroad. Although I’m a cisgendered gay male who was born in Canada, my parents were from Jamaica, a country that criminalizes same-sex intimacy. I both understand the privilege that comes with being born in Canada, as well as the risks that are associated with being in a country that criminalizes same-sex relationships. So that, and a real desire to tackle the challenges that we face globally, is why I really invested in Rainbow Railroad.
When was the moment when you thought, “Oh no, we need to work on Afghanistan…”?
Even though we’ve been around since 2006, we really built up ourselves as an organization over the past six years during my tenure as executive director. Up until that point, we focused on helping individuals at risk on a case-by-case basis. But since then, we’ve become more grounded in our work, expanded our international partnerships and networks, and built our capacity. We have worked on multiple crises in Chechnya, Egypt, and other countries.
However, up until this point we’ve never dealt with a full-blown geopolitical crisis that was affecting our community. With Afghanistan, we didn’t initially really realize we’d be working on this issue so intensely, until governments started to identify the LGBTQI+ community as people of concern. And while it’s a sign of progress that governments did proactively label this community as at-risk, it also put expectations on us to intervene. Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban last August, requests for help just spiked.
Could you share a story or two about some of the people from Afghanistan that Rainbow Railroad helped?
I always find telling a story challenging because so many stories are… hard. They’re hard to listen to, and they really demonstrate the risky situations people are in. We had one individual describe what it was like to run from the Taliban when they took over. This person was identified as LGBTQI+ and went into hiding when the city was taken over, only to find themself under open gunfire because their whereabouts were discovered. This person escaped by running away. That story crystallized for me why this community is particularly vulnerable, and why evacuation was a necessity because of the immediate threat to life.
How does the work on Afghanistan compare to other countries Rainbow Railroad has worked on?
This was a major instance of when the persecution of LGBTQI+ persons intersected with geopolitical issues like conflict. A unique challenge was that governments did not have, and still do not have, diplomatic relations with the Taliban. This meant that civil society had to really take the lead on evacuation efforts and be on the ground and innovative, using approaches we’ve never done before. There are a couple key lessons from that. I think one is that we recognize now that state-sponsored crackdowns are always going to exist, but as we engage more with conflict, or climate issues, or humanitarian issues, the intersection between those and sexual orientation and gender identity is going to be acute. As an LGBTQI+ organization doing this work, we have unique expertise on this population, in order to be of assistance to those at risk.
How are governments doing at assisting LGBTQI+ Afghans who feel like they have no choice but to flee? Anything you would like them to do differently?
Governments have been slow to act. They don’t have the tools to act quickly. That’s been the biggest challenge that we’ve had: they’re not acting fast enough even though they’re saying they are committed to supporting Afghans, and particularly LGBTQI+ Afghans. Rainbow Railroad and civil society partners have been on the ground, doing this work in Afghanistan, for nearly six months. For any intervention to be successful during a crisis, governments need to allow us to refer cases for immediate resettlement into those countries.
Rainbow Railroad in particular, before the crisis began, was sounding the alarm. We were saying governments need to have proactive crisis response plans in place with nimble corridors to protect LGBTQI+ persons at risk. We already know from experience that when crackdowns happen, people are displaced immediately and need very quick solutions. Our plea to governments is: Let’s not wait for another crisis to occur, let’s think of proactive solutions now. And the thing that gives me hope, that I think governments should appreciate, is that civil society is equipped to be an active partner.
What do you think is going to happen in the next year or two in Afghanistan for LGBTQI+ people?
The Taliban are trying to signal that they’re not going to target women and girls, the LGBTQI+ community, etc. But we already know that won’t be the case. My fear is a humanitarian crisis where even more LGBTQI+ persons will be targets of violence, especially if there are not tools to provide international development assistance to people at risk, to help us build civil society on the ground, and to relocate people. If we don’t intervene, we could see much more targeted violence and potentially the deaths of LGBTQI+ persons, which we really want to avoid.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympicswill open amid atrocity crimes and other grave human rights violations by the Chinese government, 243 nongovernmental organizations from around the world said today. The groups urged governments to join a diplomatic boycott of the Games, slated to begin February 4, 2022, and for athletes and sponsors not to legitimize government abuses.
“It’s not possible for the Olympic Games to be a ‘force for good,’ as the International Olympic Committee claims, while the host government is committing grave crimes in violation of international law,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.
Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese authorities have been committing mass abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans, ethnic groups, and religious believers from all independent faith groups. They have eliminated independent civil society by persecuting human rights activists, feminists, lawyers, journalists, and others. The government has eviscerated a once-vibrant civil society in Hong Kong, expanded tech-enabled surveillance to significantly curtail the rights to expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and allowed the use of forced labor, in violation of international law.
Chinese authorities also continue to threaten members of diaspora communities, public figures, and companies beyond China’s borders through a sophisticated campaign of transnational repression.
“That the Winter Olympics is held in Beijing sends a signal to the world that Xi Jinping’s government is normal,” said Renee Xia, Director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “When the world rationalizes away such an abusive situation, it makes it harder for victims to stand up against injustice.”
Since the Chinese government was awarded the 2022 Winter Games in 2015, nongovernmental organizations and media outlets have documented numerous serious human rights violations by Chinese authorities. Those include:
Arbitrary detention, torture, and forced labor of millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in Xinjiang (the Uyghur region);
Decimation of independent media, democratic institutions, and rule of law in Hong Kong;
High-tech surveillance systems enabling authorities to track and unjustly prosecute peaceful conduct, including criticism shared through apps, such as WeChat;
Prosecution of people exercising rights to free expression, peaceful assembly, and association on behalf of vulnerable populations, including the lawyers Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, the citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, the Tibetan monk and writer Go Sherab Gyatso, and public health activists known as the Changsha Funeng group; and
Arbitrary detention, torture, and forcible disappearance of human rights defenders, including Gao Zhisheng and Guo Feixiong.
“The spectacle of the Olympics cannot cover up genocide,” said Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project. “It’s hard to understand why anyone feels it’s even possible to celebrate international friendship and ‘Olympic values’ in Beijing this year.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that its human rights obligations, announced in 2017, do not apply to the 2022 Winter Games. The IOC has not met its responsibilities under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by carrying out human rights due diligence despite the well-documented abuses in China, the groups said.
In other respects, the IOC has shown that its stated commitment to human rights means little. IOC President Thomas Bach participated in a Chinese government propaganda campaign to whitewash the sexual assault allegations brought by three-time Olympian Peng Shuai. The IOC has been unwilling to meet with the End Uyghur Forced Labor (EUFL) coalition, and has sported uniforms made by a company credibly alleged to use forced labor.
“The IOC claims that sport and politics do not mix, but the Chinese government was the one that used the 2008 Beijing Olympics to serve its political interests,” said Bhuchung K. Tsering, interim president of the International Campaign for Tibet. “Tibetans in Tibet then took the risk to tell the world about this, but the IOC didn’t pay heed. The upcoming Beijing Olympics is a unique opportunity for the IOC and governments to empower their athletes and press Chinese authorities to abide by international norms.”
The top corporate sponsors of the Games – Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota, and Visa – have also not fulfilled their human rights due diligence responsibilities. The companies have not provided meaningful public responses to concerns that their sponsorship creates or contributes to human rights violations, or whether they have acted to mitigate those violations. Sponsors should immediately disclose their human rights due diligence strategies, or explain their failure to carry out such assessments, the groups said
Several governments, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games in response to the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. They will send no senior officials – a longstanding Olympic tradition – to the opening or closing ceremonies. All governments, whether joining the diplomatic boycott or not, should use the opportunity to not only support the athletes participating in the Games, but also demonstrate concrete support for human rights defenders across China.
“We urge governments to send messages of support to human rights defenders in prison or detention who are paying a great price for advocating reform, defending the rights of others, or simply discussing ways to strengthen civil society in China,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.
Those participating in the Beijing Olympics face a host of human rights risks, the groups said. IOC rules prohibit athletes from publicly expressing their views on human rights in China on the Olympic podium, and Chinese authorities’ retaliation against critics creates a chill for athletes worldwide. The Chinese government’s willingness to arbitrarily detain foreigners for peaceful criticism, such as the Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, further limits free speech. Olympic athletes, coaches, and other support staff are also likely to be subjected to pervasive state surveillance, particularly through monitoring of digital communications.
“Athletes upholding Olympic ideals should not have to face omnipresent surveillance, repression of free speech or belief, and an insecure human rights environment to participate in the Games,” said Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid.
Spectators around the world watching the Winter Games can play a positive role by educating themselves about the human rights environment inside China, and can take actions ranging from purchasing products not made with forced labor to encouraging their own governments to pursue accountability for Chinese government officials responsible for the worst international crimes. People can urge companies to sign the EUFL coalition’s Call to Action.
“The stark reality of the Chinese government’s atrocity crimes and ongoing impunity should compel the IOC, sponsors, and others associated with the Olympics to question whether these Games are legitimizing and prolonging grave abuses,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress. “No one should want another Olympics like this.”
Nongovernmental Organization Signatories:
6.12 Manchester Working Group
ACAT Belgium
Adas Israel Social Action Committee
Alberta Uyghur Association
All Citizenship Compact
Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy
ALTSEAN-Burma
American Alliance for Automotive Corporate Social Responsibility
Amigos del Tibet Chile
Anti-China Expansion Movement
Anti-Slavery International
Army of Survivors
ARTICLE 19
Asociación Cultural Tibetano-Costerricense
ASSEMBLY FOR DEMOCRACY IN VIETNAM
Athenai Institute
Athlete Activist
Athlete Ally
Australia Tibet Council
Australian Centre for International Justice
Australian East Turkestan Association
Australian Uyghur Association
Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association
Austria Uyghur Association
Bauhinias For Freedom
Bay Area Friends of Tibet
Be Slavery Free
Belgium Uyghur Association
[Redacted For Anonymity]
Bloc 8406 International
Blue Crescent Humanitarian Aid Association
Campaign For Uyghurs
Captive Nations Coalition of the Committee on Present Danger: China
China Against the Death Penalty
China Human Rights Defenders
ChinaAid
Chinese Democracy And Human Rights Alliance
Christian Coalition for Uyghur Freedom
Church of Scientology National Affairs Office
Citizen Power Initiatives for China
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Comitato Lady Lawyer Village
Comité de Apoyo al Tíbet CAT
Congregation Beth Ora
Consortium for Intersectional Justice
Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience
Corporate Accountability Lab
CSW
Czech Support Tibet
Dawn of HongKong
Den norske uyghur komiteen
Dialogue China
Dominican Sisters Grand Rapids
Dutch Uyghur Human Rights Foundation
East Turkestan Press and Media Association
East Turkestan Union of Muslim Scholars
East Turkistan Association in Finland
East Turkistan Association of Canada
[Redacted For Anonymity]
East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association
East Turkistan Entrepreneur Tradesmen and Industrialists Businessmen Association
East Turkistan Human Rights Watch Association
East Turkistan New Generation Movement
East Turkistan Nuzugum Culture and Family Association
East Turkistan Sports and Development Association
East Turkistan Union in Europe
Eastern Turkistan Foundation
Emgage Action
Equality League
European East Turkistan Education Association
Family Research Council
FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights
FIDU – Italian Federation for Human Rights
[Redacted For Anonymity]
Finnish Uyghur Culture Center
Football Supporters Europe
Frankfurt Stand With Hong Kong
Free Tibet
Free Uyghur Now
Freedom House
Freedom Ummah
Friends of Hong Kong Calgary
Friends of Tibet Bulgaria
Front Line Defenders
[Redacted For Anonymity]
Germany Stands with Hong Kong
Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities
Global Athlete
Global Peace Mission (GPM) Malaysia
Grupo de Apoio ao Tibete-Portugal
Havurat Shalom
[Redacted For Anonymity]
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
Hong Kong Committee in Norway
Hong Kong Democracy Council
Hong Kong Watch
Hong Kongers in San Francisco Bay Area
Hongkonger in Deutschland e.V.
HOPE not hate
Human Rights Foundation
Human Rights in China
Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Without Frontiers
Human Trafficking Search
Humanitarian China
Ilham Tohti Initiative
Indonesia Save Uyghur
International Campaign for Tibet
International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse In China (ETAC)
International Pen Uyghur Center
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
International Society for Human Rights
International Support for Uyghurs
International Tibet Network
International Union of East Turkistan Organizations
International Uyghur Human Right and Democracy Foundation
Isa Yusup Alptekin Foundation
Islamic Community Milli Gorus
Islamic Information Services Foundation
Japan Uyghur Association
Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee Detroit
Jewish Movement for Uyghur Freedom
Jewish World Watch
Judicial Reform Foundation
Justice For All
Justice for Uyghurs
Lady Lawyer Foundation
Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice
[Redacted For Anonymity]
LICADHO
Louise Xin Group
LUNGTA – Actief voor Tibet
Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MAPIM)
Malaysia4Uyghur
Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations
Minaret Foundation
Minh Van Foundation
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM)
National Clergy Council
Netherlands for Hong Kong
Norwegian Uyghur Committee
Omer Uygur Foundation
Overseas Liaison Office Representative for The Interfaith Council in Vietnam
Peace Catalyst International
Perth Anti-CCP Association
Power of Sport Lab / Athletes for Human Rights
People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE)
Religious Freedom Institute
René Cassin, the Jewish voice for human rights
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet
Satuq Bugrakhan Foundation of Science and Civilization
Silk Road Peace Project
SoCal Students for Uyghur Justice
Society for Threatened Peoples
Society Union of Uyghur National Association
Stand with HK@JPN
Stand with Hong Kong Vienna
STANDNOW
Stefanus Alliance International
[Redacted for Anonymity]
Stop Uyghur Genocide UK
Stop Uyghur Genocide Australia
Stop Uyghur Genocide Canada
Students for a Free Tibet – Denmark
Students for Free Tibet – Japan
Students For Liberty – Myanmar
Sweden Uyghur Education Union
Swedish Tibet Committee
Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association
Switzerland East Turkestan Association
Sydney Uyghur Association
Taiwan Association for China Human Rights
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada
Temple Shalom
Thailand and Hong Kong Together
The Army of Survivors
The Community Human Rights Promotion and Protection Association (ACPDH)
The Norwegian Tibet Committee
THE TAIWAN UNITED NATIONS ALLIANCE (TAIUNA)
The Tibet Support Committee, Denmark
The Viet Democratic Side’s International Forum
Tibet Action Institute
Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V.
Tibet Justice Center
Tibet Mx
Tibet Solidarity
Tibet Support Group Ireland
Tibetan Community in Britain
Tibetan Parliament in Exile
Tibetan Youth Association in Europe
Transparency International Deutschland e.V.
Tso Pema Non-Profit
Uigur Society of the Kyrgyz Republic
Uigurische Gemeinde Österreich
Umer Uyghur Trust
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
United Council of Vietnamese Homeland and Overseas
universitet Sulayman Demirel
Uyghur Academy Australia
Uyghur Academy Canada
Uyghur Academy Europe
Uyghur Academy Foundation
Uyghur Academy Japan
Uyghur Academy USA
Uyghur American Association
Uyghur Association of Victoria
Uyghur Center for Human Rights and Democracy
Uyghur Cultural and Education Union in Germany
Uyghur Education Union
Uyghur Human Rights Project
Uyghur Projects Foundation
Uyghur Refugee Relief Fund
Uyghur Research Institute
Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project
Uyghur Science and Civilization Research Foundation
Namibia’s High Court ruled last week that it could not require that the marriages of two same-sex couples conducted outside of the country be granted legal recognition.
The couples, legally married in South Africa and Germany, had been unable to obtain a work permit and residency permit, respectively, for their non-Namibian spouses and so launched a court case against Namibia’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages.
In its decision, the court expressed sympathy with the couples’ position and emphasized that discrimination based on sexual orientation is unacceptable under domestic and international law. Nevertheless, it concluded that the court was bound by a decades-old Supreme Court judgment that said the Immigration Control Act, which provides certain benefits to spouses of Namibian citizens, does not recognize same-sex relationships.
Madam Jholerina Brina Timbo of Wings to Transcend Namibia Trust, a transgender rights organization, expressed disappointment about the decision but said it was a silver lining that the court expressed concern over the unfairness of past rulings.
Linda Baumann of Namibia Diverse Women’s Association, a feminist organization, pointed to other recent court victories in Namibia and told Human Rights Watch it was a step in the right direction that judges were “affirming the existence of LGBTI people as part of our community.”
Globally, 31 countries currently recognize the right to marry for same-sex couples. When those couples travel to other countries however, their marriages may or may not be recognized, potentially making them ineligible for spousal benefits related to taxation, inheritance, insurance, housing, pensions, residency, and even parenting and family law.
The European Union’s top court has required member states to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed in other member states to ensure their freedom of movement. Israel also allows same-sex couples to register marriages performed abroad.
The couples are likely to appeal, and so either Namibia’s Supreme Court could overturn its old ruling, or lawmakers could act to change the status quo. As more countries recognize marriage equality, Namibia and other states should also take steps to ensure that same-sex relationships are respected and protected.
A group of lawmakers in Guatemala has advanced a bill that would stigmatize transgender people and curtail children’s and adolescents’ rights to education, information, and health, Human Rights Watch said today. Congress should reject the bill and instead address the violence and discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face in the country.
Bill 5940 uses the rhetoric of protecting children and adolescents from “gender identity disorders” to justify a patently discriminatory measure that would ban the dissemination of any information about transgender identity in school sex education curricula. The bill would also require media outlets to label programs with transgender content, which the bill likens to pornography, as “not recommended” for children under 18.
“Bill 5940 is unscientific and stigmatizes transgender people as a corrupting influence, harmful to children,” said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Lawmakers should aim to promote tolerance, not demean a vulnerable minority, especially given the high levels of anti-trans violence in Guatemala.”
The twenty-one lawmakers in the Congress’ Commission on Education, Science, and Technologyunanimously approved the bill in December 2021. The bill is now poised to go before the full Congress, where it would need to be the subject of three congressional debates and a final vote before becoming law
The bill flies in the face of international human rights standards and science, Human Rights Watch said. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, an international multidisciplinary professional association aimed at promoting evidence-based care, education, and research in transgender health, has stated that diversity in gender identity “is a common and culturally diverse human phenomenon [that] should not be judged as inherently pathological or negative.”
Under international law, children and adolescents have a right to comprehensive sexual education. The UN special rapporteur on the right to education has noted that sexuality education “must be free of prejudices and stereotypes that could be used to justify discrimination and violence against any group,” and “must pay special attention to diversity, since everyone has the right to deal with his or her own sexuality without being discriminated against on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Violence against LGBT people is commonplace in Guatemala, and the bill risks adding to the existing prejudice and stereotypes that often fuel such violence, Human Rights Watch said. Guatemala’s Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office reported that between December 30 and January 2, two trans women and one gay man were murdered in separate attacks. This follows an already bloody 2021 for LGBT people in Guatemala, in which transgender people were particularly vulnerable.
In March 2021, Human Rights Watch published a report on violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Guatemala. Human Rights Watch interviewed 53 survivors of anti-LGBT abuses – including 24 gender non-conforming people – and found that the attackers included public security agents, gangs, and members of the public. It also found that the government had failed to adequately protect LGBT people against such illegal acts.
Bill 5940 would also continue to erode comprehensive sexuality education in Guatemala, which is already regressive. A 2017 report from the Guttmacher Institute found that many teachers providing sexuality education lack adequate time, resources, and training, especially on contraceptive methods, HIV/sexually transmitted infections, and violence. The Institute also found that teachers convey mixed messages about sexuality, including the harmful and stigmatizing message that sexual relations are dangerous and should be avoided before marriage.
Withholding age-appropriate and science-based information about gender and sexuality from students, including information relevant to students’ sexual and reproductive health, and prohibiting teachers from offering guidance and learning materials on these issues, amounts to a violation of students’ right of access to information, Human Rights Watch said.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has identified lack of “access to sexual and reproductive health services and information” as a particular issue for “[a]dolescents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.” It said governments should “refrain from censoring, withholding, or intentionally misrepresenting health-related information, including sexual education and information, and … ensure children have the ability to acquire the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and others as they begin to express their sexuality.”
Bill 5940’s requirement that media outlets label all material related to gender identity unsuitable for minors not only denigrates transgender people but may result in violations of the right to freedom of expression. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said that the media should promote “an environment of peace, free from all forms of violence in relation to the social environment in which it is situated, generating safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTI people.”
The bill is not the only legislative attempt aimed at stigmatizing LGBT people in Guatemala. The pending Life and Family Protection Bill describes “sexual diversity” as “incompatible with the biological and genetic aspects of human beings.” It also establishes that “freedom of conscience and expression” protects people from being “obliged to accept non-heterosexual conduct or practices as normal,” a provision that could be used to justify discriminatory denial of services.
The Organization of American States General Assembly has called on member states to adopt public policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, yet Guatemala currently provides LGBT people with virtually no protections.
“Instead of stoking a moral panic by demonizing LGBT people, lawmakers should pass anti-discrimination and hate crime legislation to address pervasive violence,” González said. “They should also uphold children and adolescents’ right to comprehensive sexuality education, which can protect health, promote tolerance, and help prevent gender-based violence, including against gender and sexual minorities.”
