ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012

From the Co-Secretaries General
This annual report is characterized by contrasts – some victories to celebrate against a
background of hateful laws still in force and hate crimes around the world. Roughly 60% of UN
Members (113 of 193) has abolished (and a few never had) legislation criminalizing same-sex
sexual acts between consenting adults, while roughly 40% (78 of 193) still clings to it in a
misguided – as well as criminal – attempt to preserve their “cultural identities” in the face of
globalization. Although this division has been relatively stable in the last years, the recent
development at the UN Human Rights Council, with the groundbreaking report by the High-
Commissioner Pillay on the violence and discrimination too many LGBTI people still face
around the world, give us reason for hope, though change might not come at the pace we
would like it to come.
This sixth issue of our annual report on State-sponsored homophobia sees unfortunately an
increase in the total number of countries in the world with a legislation persecuting people on
the basis of their sexual orientation, which now are 78 against the 76 of last year. Though one
“new entry” – Benin – is due to our improved knowledge as to the laws of the country and to
the confirmation of the existence of such a law by the very words of the Benin representative
uttered during the Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council last year, the other
entry – South Sudan – represents a real disappointment: one would have hoped that the birth
of a new country would have been also the occasion to improve the legislation inherited
from the old country the new one was once part of. The only consolation, is that at least
South Sudan has not adopted the death penalty for “crimes against the order of nature” that
Sudan infamously continues to have in its penal code.
At the same time it is interesting to notice a paradoxical development in several states of
Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean (Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles),
where parliaments adopt legislation to prevent discrimination on grounds of sexual
orientation in workplaces, while at the same time their respective penal codes retain
provisions to punish those who engage in same-sex sexual acts among consenting adults –
one would hope that it is only a matter of time before these very parliaments acknowledge
this contradiction and proceed as soon as possible with an update of their penal codes.
More worrying are the developments in Russia, where the city of St. Petersburg and other
regions have introduced legislation to punish “homosexual propaganda”, that can include
the human rights defenders work, a dangerous precedent which might soon be followed by
the country as a whole. Despite de-penalizing homosexuality in 1993, Russia, unfortunately, is
at the forefront of a group of countries which have been trying in the last years to limit,
control or otherwise pre-empt the universal validity of the human rights declaration by
promoting the notion of ‘tradition’ as a sort of filter to give the “appropriate” interpretation of
human rights within the context of a culture. It is difficult at this stage, to understand whether
Russia is doing all this more to profile itself as an unlikely leader in the battle against the west
or to pay homage to its orthodox church… or both. While this policy will turn out to be
unsuccessful in the long run, there is no doubt however that it will cause great suffering in the
short one.
Furthermore – as we shall never be tired to repeat – the well-being, not to mention the safety,
of LGBTI people all over the world cannot be measured solely on the basis of the legislation of
the country they reside in. The fact of living in a country where same-sex sexual acts between
consenting adults are not criminalized does not imply automatically that a lesbian, gay or
trans person are safe there, due to violence, persecution and other discriminatory practices
carried out by non-state agents, organized or not, and in some cases even protected by the
authorities. We shall deal with this issue in the sections below called “Refugee Context
Considered” and “Homophobia in Brazil”.
State-Sponsored Homophobia – May 2012
ILGA – The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - www.ilga.org
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