ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012

From the Author
Knowing the law is a very important part of any effective human rights work. Access to this
knowledge is a particular challenge when it comes to LGBTI issues. This can be due to rapidly
changing legal provisions, contradicting sources, and the inaccessibility of certain legal
provisions in the public domain. The aim of this report is therefore to consolidate the latest
research on a range of LGBTI legal issues all around the world, providing activists, lawyers,
judges, academics, public officials, or anyone else interested in the subject with the most
updated information.
This report has become an important tool for the defense of LGBTI rights throughout the years
and it has been increasingly used and cited by a variety of media sources, NGOs, institutions,
and most recently by UN agencies. This has only motivated us to keep improving its quality so
it can produce useful resources and bring symbolic –and hopefully material - benefits to
people’s lives. After all, legal changes, particularly concerning LGBTI issues, generate further
social and pedagogical effects, educating the society on the protection and promotion of
the rights of such people.
The first part of the report presents a global overview of developments of LGBTI rights in a
variety of matters: decriminalization of homosexual acts; equalization of ages of consent;
prohibitions of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; hate crimes
based on sexual orientation and gender identity considered as aggravating circumstance;
marriage and partnership rights for same-sex couples; joint adoption by same-sex couples;
and laws on gender recognition after gender reassignment treatment.
The second part is comprised of a summary of countries that still maintain legal provisions
criminalizing same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults and who engage in sexual
activity in private. Laws related to such acts done in public, with minors, by force or otherwise
outlawed are not included.
The compilation of this year’s report followed the same methodological procedures
introduced in the 2011 version. A call to ILGA members in more than 110 countries was made
to collect the most accurate data, which I combined with news articles and material I have
been collecting for the past year regarding LGBTI legal developments. For each new
development, I first searched for the original text of the law in penal codes or other relevant
legislation. If that was not available or not very clear, I then looked for other sources, such as
official reports from governmental or non-governmental agencies, the UN or other
international organizations. If these were not found, other types of sources were used.
Afterwards, the first draft was reviewed and discussed by an advisory group composed of
LGBTI experts Kees Waaldijk 1 (Leiden Law School/ The Netherlands), Robert Wintemute (King’s
College/UK), Eddie Bruce-Jones (Birkbeck Univeristy/UK) and an ILGA board composed of
Renato Sabbadini, Stephen Barris and Sebastian Rocca.
I would like to thank the members of the above mentioned group for their significant
comments and assistance, as well as the organizations and other scholars that sent us their
suggestions. If you have any additional information or further sources not available in this
report, please contact ILGA at information@ilga.org and we will investigate the matter.
The report has been researched and edited by Lucas Paoli Itaborahy. 2 It is an updated
version of the five annual editions of this report that were researched and compiled by Daniel
Ottosson until 2010 and by Eddie Bruce-Jones and Lucas Paoli Itaborahy in 2011.
1 Kees Waaldijk has also contributed immensely to this report, providing a draft version of Legal recognition of
homosexual orientation in the countries of Africa from March 2011, as well as his 2009 paper "Legal recognition of
homosexual orientation in the countries of the world", which is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1887/14543.
2 Lucas Paoli Itaborahy was born in Brazil on 1 st August 1986 and holds a bachelor degree in International Relations
from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais. He is currently concluding his MA in Human Rights Practice
State-Sponsored Homophobia – May 2012
ILGA – The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - www.ilga.org
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