Good News For the LGBT Population of Georgia :D

Georgia is going to take the hatred towards LGBT into the scope of crime

 

 

Georgian Parliamentary Committee accepted sexual orientation and gender identity as the indicators of hate crimes

European Commission against non-tolerance and discrimination (ECRI) recommended Georgian government to amend Georgian criminal law by adding hate crimes directed against members of ethnic and religious minority groups as a general aggravating circumstance. Complying with the recommendation, Georgian authority elaborated new-draft law that covered religious and ethnic minorities.

By augmenting sexual orientation and gender identity, Georgian Young Lawyer’s Association (GYLA) along with LGBT-Georgia submitted its own draft in which Sexual orientation and gender identity were included. The majority of parliamentary committee fully upheld the initiatives and sexual orientation and gender identity first appeared in the official version of draft law.

The law should undertake two plenary hearing; Georgian LGBT organizations hope that the parliament will not reject to adopt the bill.       

the source:

http://kaosgl.org/page.php?id=10842

Great news - no longer any sterilisations in Sweden!

The Stockholm administrative court has just come to the decision that the requirement of being barren, for a applicant who wants new legal gender, is in conflict with the European convention. Therefore, the reqirement should not be used.

It was last year the Discriminationbyreau in Uppsala handled in a case to the court, where a transsexeual man made an appeal about the decision he got from the authority which manages issues about changes of legal gender, the Law Council of The National Board of Health and Welfare. The Council turned the applicants wish down, saying he didn´t fullfill the requirement about sterilization stated in the law.

Now the court has decided the that the requirement of sterilization is in conflict with articel 8 in the European Convention, and cannot therefore be used.

If this decision becomes a precendant, that mean, not only the applicant but every transsexual in Sweden from this day has the right to change legal gender, without being forced to undergo sterilazation. Since there are no other medical or surgical requirements, Sweden now in practice, but not jet in law, does fullfill the Recommendations to Council of Europe member states, stated by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights. The recommendations says that no memberstate of the European Council should require any medical or surgical procedures from people who wants to change legal gender.

The National Board of Health and Welfare has so far said nothing about if they will appeal. But in 2010 the authority in a report clearly argumented against the sterilazation requirement. So they are likely not to appeal, I would say.

the text is taken from the very well known Sweden trans activist : Lukas Romson

Pakistan opposes UN panel on discrimination and violence against LGBT people

PERMANENT MISSION OF PAKISTAN
TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND
OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

56 me de Moillebeau
1211 Geneva 19
Tel: (4122) 7491930
Fax: (4122) 734 8085
E-mail: mission.vakistan@ties.ita.int.

Ambassador
No. Pol/S0/2012

14 February 2012

H.E. Ms. Laura Dupuy Lasserre
President of the Human Rights Council
Geneva
My dear President,
I am writing to you in my capacity as Coordinator of the OIC Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues in Geneva.
2.         I wish to explain the position taken by the Member States of the OIC onResolution 17/19 and the subsequent Panel on “Discrimination and Violence based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” scheduled to be held on 7 March 2012 during the 19′th Session of the Human rights Council.
3.         The OIC States are deeply concerned by the introduction in the Human Rights Council of controversial notions like “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The OIC countries have been consistent in their opposition to the consideration of these controversial notions in the context of human right at international fora.
4.         We are seriously concerned at the attempt to introduce in the United Nations concepts that have no legal foundation in any international human rights instrument. The international community only recognizes those rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which were codified in subsequent international legal instruments.
5.         We note with concern the attempts to create controversial “new notions” or “new standards” by misinterpreting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and intemational treaties to include such notions that were never articulated or agreed to by the UN membership. These attempts undermine not only the intent of the drafters and signatories to these human rights instruments, but also seriously jeopardize the entire international human rights framework.
6.         We are even more disturbed at the attempt to focus on certain persons on the grounds of their abnormal sexual behaviour, while not focusing on the glaring instances of intolerance and discrimination in various parts of the world, be it on the basis of colour, race, gender or religion, to mention only a few.
7.         It must also be recognized that the international community agreed during the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, that while considering the issue of human rights, national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind. From this perspective, the issue of sexual orientation is unacceptable to the OIC.
8.         The OIC Member States are concerned that the Panel will discuss issues that relate to personal behavior and preferences, and have nothing to do with fundamental human rights. This debate will shift the focus from the real issues that deserve the attention of the Council.
9.         For the reasons explained above the Member States of the OIC would like to place on record their opposition to the holding of this panel and will not accept its considerations and recommendations.

Sincerely yours,

Zamir Akram
Ambassador and Permanent Representative
Coordinator of the OIC Group on Human Rights
and Humanitarian Issues

Copy to H.E. Ms. Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights

AND HERE IS WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST PETER TATCHELL SAYS: 

LGBT human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell works with the democracy and human rights movements in Pakistan. He said:

"Pakistan has signed up to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees equal treatment and non-discrimination to all people. It is a member of the Commonwealth, whose Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, has declared that homophobic discrimination and violence is incompatible with Commonwealth values. 

"Shamefully, Pakistan opposes a UN panel discussing discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Even many governments that disagree with homosexuality agree that violence against anyone, including sexual minorities, is wrong. 

"The bigoted stance of the Pakistani Ambassador to the UN, Zamir Akram, is ill-informed about human sexuality and human rights law. He is living in the Dark Ages, ignoring scientific understanding and humanitarian ethics. His homophobic views are an insult to the estimated nine million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Pakistanis. 

"I urge the Pakistani President and Prime Minister to repudiate this intolerant, ignorant letter. The Ambassador's rejection of universal human rights is deplorable. It casts the government of Pakistan in a bad light," said Mr Tatchell.