GLBT people across the world are still the victims of widespread violent abuse and discrimination according to a new United Nations report.
The United Nations human rights chief has revealed in a new report that gay, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people are victims of “pervasive violent abuse, harassment and discrimination” in all regions of the world.
The Guardian reports that Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for human rights said actions by some nations to reduce violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity since the last report in 2011 have been overshadowed by continuing human rights violations against these groups, too often perpetrated with impunity.
The report highlights GLBT murders in a number of different countries, such as the murder of transsexual women in Uruguay, black lesbian women in South Africa, and the killing of a gay man in Chile by neo-Nazis who carved swastikas into his body.
The report also gives examples of non-lethal violence including the arrest, beating and ill-treatment by police in Zimbabwe of 44 members of an GLBT organisation, a woman arrested in Bangladesh for being a lesbian who was allegedly raped by police while in custody, and four people arrested in Egypt for their alleged sexual orientation who were reportedly sexually assaulted by other inmates while in detention.
According to the report, at least 76 countries retain laws used to criminalise and harass people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, including laws criminalising consensual same-sex relationships among adults.
Article | Levi Joule.
