Marking the March 8 International Women’s Day and participating in the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations over the last week has given us at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission an opportunity to reflect on our work in the context of the global women’s movement.

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. It is also intended to be a day of observance of work for women’s empowerment and gender equality. However, if that work does not include work for the advancement of the rights of lesbian and bisexual women and transgender people (LBT) then it remains incomplete. We join the international community in celebrating the achievements of women while noting the particular challenges facing and achievements of LBT people around the world.

CSW NGO Global Women’s Forum: Beijing +15.

The global United Nation theme chosen for this year’s International Women’s Day is, “2010: Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.” This theme encompasses many of the urgent issues facing LBT people across the globe in 2010, including discrimination, violence and invisibility. IGLHRC calls on civil society, States, and the broader international community to advance the civil and political, as well as economic and social rights of LBT people as part of the larger effort to advance the rights of women. This is essential to ensuring equal opportunities and progress for all and requires work in diverse areas – from discrimination in employment and education to work on issues of violence and impunity and on ensuring visibility and recognition.

Discrimination in Employment and Education
In the workplace, discrimination against LBT people because of sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression remains a barrier to social and economic advancement. While the types of discrimination For example, lesbian women in China are often denied employment or job promotions if they appear too masculine. Male coworkers sexually harass LBT people who often cannot lodge complaints because of the risk of retaliation by employers. Transgender and gender variant people in particular face blackmail, harassment and sexual violence.

In Canada, where the Charter on Rights and Freedoms protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, LGBT children and children of parents of the same sex still face high levels of bullying in schools, with girls facing the highest levels of abuse from other students.

Violence and Impunity
While violence is a significant threat to all women, rising rates of attacks against LBT people in many regions of the world point to the need for stronger anti-discrimination laws and LBT-focused police protection. Human rights defenders who defend the rights of LBT people also frequently experience threats to their safety, with police participating in or doing nothing to stop these violations.

In Latin America, documented cases of violence against trans people indicate a crisis of epidemic proportions. Preliminary results from the Trans Murder Monitoring Project of Transgender Europe (TGEU), which monitors incidents of trans related violence across the globe, have shown that the highest rates of murder reports come from Latin America. In total 91 murders of trans people, mostly travesti or transgender women, were reported in 11 Latin American countries in 2008, and 73 murders of trans people were reported in just the first six months of 2009.

In Turkey, targeted killings of transgender women are part of a broader pattern of violence against LGBT people in the country. Since November 2008, at least eight transgender people have been murdered in Istanbul and Ankara.

In South Africa, where LGBT people are explicitly protected by the Constitution, homophobia and transphobia within the courtroom can lead to a sense of impunity for the perpetrators of grave violence against LBT people, such as in the partial conviction that resulted from the trial for the murder of South African lesbian Eudy Simelane.

Visibility and Legal Recognition
In addition to the threat of violence and discrimination, LBT people are rendered invisible by states and societies and oftentimes by other rights and social justice movements. In many countries, the existence of women who have sex with other women and transgender or gender variant people is not acknowledged and LBT movements must struggle to gain recognition and legitimacy. In some countries, such as Nepal, explicit acknowledgement by the government of the existence of LBT people has led to concrete protections and rights, such as passports and national identification cards that can include a ”third gender” classification and the right to marry a person of the same sex.

Transnational LBT Movement
Since 1975, LBT people from all over the world have made great strides in advancing their issues on the international stage within institutions such as the United Nations, most recently in 2010, at the 15th Anniversary of the Beijing Process and the Platform for Action and the 54th Commission on the Status of Women, where for the first time, a State, the Netherlands, sponsored a side-event focused entirely on the issues of LBT people, entitled “Human Dignity for LBT Women”.

Activists Grace Poore (IGLHRC), Geeta Misra (CREA) and Jessica Stern (IGLHRC) at “Human Dignity for LBT Women.” Geeta Misra co-moderated the panel.

 

Still, groups representing the interests and views of LBT people have a long fight for recognition in these venues.

Read A Short History of Lesbians at the United Nations, by the ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. www.ilga.org

Mexico 1975
The First UN World Conference on Women fuels the lesbian movement. The lesbian caucus raises the question of the exclusion of lesbian issues from the agenda of the conference. The press publishes information on the “Lesbian Workshop,” an event held in parallel to the World Conference.

Copenhagen 1980
Second UN World Conference on Women. The organizing Committee of the Forum for the World Decade for Women approves five proposals for workshops on lesbian issues.

Nairobi 1985
Third UN World Conference on Women. The International Lesbian Information Service organizes seven workshops. The lesbian caucus formulates specific demands. To protect them from the local authorities, the head of the Forum has the lesbian workshop tent taken down, an act that puts lesbian issues in the spotlight, During the conference, the official delegate of the Netherlands talks openly for the first time about lesbian issues.

Vienna 1993
World Conference on Human Rights organised by the UN. Two Latin American lesbians testify publically in the Court of Human Rights, telling the main obstacles encountered by lesbians in their lives.

Cairo 1994
For the first time, the expression “sexual rights” is referenced in an official intergovernmental document for the Conference on Population and Development. The debate on sexuality was vigorous, but the term was withdrawn.

Beijing 1995
Fourth UN World Conference on Women, An international campaign succeeds in having lesbian issues included in the official agenda, and a lesbian “tent” is set up throughout the conference. The official Conference Committee discusses the expression “sexual orientation” for more than a week; the discussion and arguments attract the attention of the press. A South African lesbian testifies at the UN plenary in the name of the lesbian caucus.

Canada 1998
Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. 150 NGOs come together in the Global Forum for Human Rights and produce a document specifically dealing with sexual orientation and including in its final report recommendations from LGBT groups.

New York 2000 – Beijing + 5
Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the follow up to the Beijing Platform for Action. At the Millennium Summit of the UN, the eight Millennium Development Goals are established. Harsh debates were carried out for the inclusion of discrimination based on sexual orientation on the final texts. Though it was removed, some countries supported the inclusion of sexual orientation on the list of obstacles that women face, and so it was set down in the records.

New York 2005 – Beijing +10
UN Commission on the Status of Women conducts the ten-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action, Lobbying by right-wing and conservative movements resulted in a political climate that was hostile to sexual and reproductive rights issues. Nonetheless, paragraph 96 of the Beijing Platform for Action could be reaffirmed, protecting women’s autonomy in decision-making about sexuality

To ensure equal rights and equal opportunities for all LBT women, the international community must continue to pressure governments to uphold their national and international human rights obligations and to respect, protect, and promote the lives and dignity of LBT people everywhere.

International Women’s Day Web Round-Up:

International Women’s Day Official Website

ILGA-LAC

IWD lesbian and bi event “SUGAR AND SPICE”

The Advocate’s IWD LBT workshop

UN Women Watch

Feministe

Gender Across Borders

RH Reality Check

The Hathor Legacy

What does IWD mean to you? Share below in the comments!

A letter from IGLHRC’s partner Colectiva Mujer y Salud, a Dominican feminist group helping with relief efforts in Haiti

Dear friends,

I returned from Haiti this morning and it is hard to put into words what I witnessed there. The smell of death clouds your senses. Thousands of people are trapped and crying beneath the rubble, and you are unable to help them. People seem to be staring into another world, their eyes flashes of lightning fleeing the horror.

People walk around, coming and going, but headed nowhere. They are wanderers carrying their pain and misery, wanderers carrying their broken dreams. They just walk and walk – it’s as if by walking they will free themselves of the tragedy.

The streets are full of decomposing bodies. Yesterday afternoon they decided to bury their dead in common graves. They probably decided that it was necessary in order to overcome the tidal wave of smells, and they must have asked their gods and goddesses and their ancestors for forgiveness.

Improvised camps have been set up everywhere that was untouched by the tragedy: squares, parks, streets, empty lots, etc. But no one dares enter the small buildings that have been left standing; being under a roof inspires dread, insecurity, and fear. The earth is still dancing, readjusting its plates, finishing its cycle.

Yesterday there was still no medical assistance at the camps. In the streets, people were trying to heal their wounds and stave off death by the only means they had: hope. Their skin shows signs of dehydration and the only roof over their heads is the sun. Luckily, the rain has held back its tears, so when night falls, the people can lie down on the ground, wrapped up in their sorrow.

Hunger and thirst have left their faces listless, drained of energy, and showing a resigned agony. They must sleep in the same places where they relieve themselves.

My friends, it is impossible to ignore the cries beneath the rubble, the cries for their wounds, for their bruises, for their dead, the cries for the pseudo life they are now living. It is impossible not to hear them today, in the middle of my meetings. I tried to shut out these cries, but I could not.

I decided to look for our friends Lise, Colette, Ann Marie, Miriam, Nikette, Susy, Magui, Olga, and the others. I went to their offices: some had been reduced to rubble; others were half-destroyed and deserted. Someone informed me that Ann Marie* had died. I cried and cried, and then I carried on.

In addition to its people, the infrastructure of Haiti has been shattered: the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Economics and Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Public Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior, Public Works, the armed forces, the internal tax building, hospitals, etc. The State no longer exists.

Help is slow in coming because there is no one to coordinate it. The airport has no control tower, there is not enough room for more planes to fly in, and there is no light to allow work after dark. The United Nations organized an airlift, but it is not enough.

Social organizations such as ours are establishing a Binational Commission to try to create a platform for receiving aid in Haiti. We are trying to give our friends a bit of hope so that they stay united, and so that we may organize aid coordination. It will take some time, but we will succeed. Haitians have a special strength and they will recover from this.

Friends, right now solidarity is the only thing holding us together. Solidarity is the only thing strong enough to hold back the pain and make our Haitian sisters feel hopeful when they think about the future.

Warmest wishes,
Sergia
Santo Domingo
January 15, 2010

*Anne Marie Coriolan was a militant feminist and the founder of SOFA (Solidarity with Haitian Women). She attended the most recent meeting of Encuentro Feminista, a feminist forum, held in Mexico City.

Queridas amigas, regresé en la madrugada de hoy de Haití, todo lo que pueda contar es poco. El olor a muerte nubla la razón, los miles de cuerpos atrapados y llorando debajo de los escombros te hacen sentir una migaja, las personas parecen mirar a otro mundo, sus ojos parecen relámpagos que huyen del horror.

Las gentes son caminantes que van y vienen sin rumbo, deambulantes que cargan dolor y miseria, deambulantes que cargan sueños en ruinas. La gente camina, camina, camina.. es como si al caminar se liberaran de la tragedia.

Las calles están llenas de cadáveres en descomposición, ayer en la tarde decidieron, enterrar a sus muertos en fosas comunes, es probable que pidiendo perdón a sus dioses, diosas y ancestros, decidieran sobrevivir al terremoto de los olores, y enterrar a los suyos en fosas comunes.

Las personas han construido improvisados campamentos en cada espacio que la tragedia haya dejado libre, en plazas parques, calles, solares vacíos, aun en las poquísimas estructuras que quedan levantadas, la gentes no entra a ellas , estar bajo algún techo genera temor, inseguridad, miedo, pues aun la tierra sigue danzando, reacomodando sus placas, cerrando su ciclo.

Todavía ayer no llegaba asistencia médica a los campamentos, y en las calles las personas intentaban curar sus heridas y alargar la muerte mediante lo único que tenían a mano: la espera. La deshidratación marca la piel, pues su único techo es el sol, por suerte la lluvia ha contenido sus lágrimas y a la caída del sol las personas podían tirarse al suelo, arropados con su dolor.

Las caras lánguidas por el hambre y la sed, mermaban las energías y mostraban un cuadro de tranquila agonía. El lugar de reposo, es también el mismo lugar para hacer las necesidades fisiológicas.

Amigas, el llanto debajo de los escombros y el llanto por las heridas, por los golpes, por los muertos ,el llanto por la cuasi vida, es imposible borrarlo, es imposible dejar de escucharlo, hoy, en medio de reuniones he intentado poner oídos sordos a esos llantos, pero siguen ahí.

Decidí buscar a nuestras amigas, a Lise, a Colette, Ann Marie, a Miriam, a Nikette, a Susy, a Magui, a Olga y a otras, y fui a visitar sus oficinas, algunas estaban convertidas en polvo, otras semi destruidas y no encontré a ninguna. Una persona me informó que Ann Marie murió, lloré, lloré, lloré y seguí.

No solo las personas, también la infraestructura del Estado sucumbió: Palacio Presidencial, Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, Ministerio de Educación, Ministerio de Salud, Ministerio Publico, Ministerio del Interior, Obras Publicas, Fuerzas Armadas, Edificio de Impuestos Internos, hospitales en fin, el Estado no existe.

La ayuda es lenta, porque no hay con quien coordinar, el aeropuerto no tiene torre de control, no tienen espacio para que lleguen más aviones, no hay luz para trabajar en la noche. Naciones Unidas abrió un puente aéreo, pero no es suficiente.

Las organizaciones de sociedad civil, constituimos una Comisión Binacional para intentar crear una plataforma en Haití que pueda ser receptora de la ayuda, estamos haciendo intentos por infundirles un poco de fuerza a las amigas y amigos que no partieron, para que estructuremos una coordinación, tomará un poco de tiempo, pero vamos a lograrlo, las Haitianas y Haitianos son de una fuerza especial y se van reponer.

Amigas, en este momento la solidaridad es el único aliciente, la solidaridad es la única fuerza que logrará contener el dolor y hacer que nuestras hermanas haitianas sientan emoción de mirar el futuro.

Un abrazo a todas

Sergia
Santo Domingo
15 de enero 2010

*Anne Marie Coriolan, militante feminista, Fundadora de SOFA. Estuvo presente en el pasado Encuentro Feminista celebrado en México

Read the op-ed Meanwhile, in Senegal by IGLHRC’s Cary Alan Johnson and Ryan Thoreson in MetroWeekly which contextualizes the vehement global response against the proposed Anti-Homosexuality bill in Uganda in light of other instances of grave human rights violations against LGBT people in Africa.

Excerpt:

But while condemning new oppressive laws is important, it is just as important — and perhaps more pressing — to take measures to hold governments accountable for the daily violence and lifetimes of discrimination that LGBT people face in the more than 80 countries around the world that continue to criminalize homosexuality and the many more that impose penalties for those who challenge gender norms.

Take Senegal, for instance, where homosexuality has been illegal since 1965. The last two years have seen a dramatic escalation in homophobic persecution and violence, largely unnoticed by the international community and the world media. The country has experienced waves of arrests, detentions, and attacks on individuals by anti-gay mobs, fueled by media sensationalism and a harsh brand of religious fundamentalism. Police have rounded up men and women on charges of homosexuality, detained them under inhumane conditions, and sentenced them with or without proof of having committed any offense. Families and communities have turned on those suspected of being gay or lesbian. In cities throughout the county, the corpses of men presumed to have been gay have been disinterred and unceremoniously abandoned. As the international community has laudably warned Uganda on the progress of its nonsensical law, arrests on charges related to homosexuality in Senegal — five men in Darou Mousty in June, a man in Touba in November, and 24 men celebrating at a party in Saly Niax Niaxal on Christmas Eve — continue largely unnoticed.

Read the full article »

IGLHRC’s Monica Mbaru was interviewed by Afronline (http://www.afronline.org) about LGBT community in Uganda and Africa.

Excerpt:

Where does this idea of homosexuality as a Western concept come from?

When politicians want to derail or take people’s attention away from a problem to another one, when they just don’t want to take responsibility or when it is convenient to push the idea that something is not African. And this is the routine. Let’s take corruption: it is not Western or African, it is a human thing, a human behaviour.

Hossein Alizadeh

The following is a translation of a story written by the State-run Fars News Agency, and published January 7, 2010 on BBC Persian’s Website. While the decision of the government not to classify transgender people as mentally disturbed is an important step forward, the language used by the government officials is both unfortunate and shows the challenges that the trans community faces in Iran.

The Director of Socially Vulnerable groups at the State Agency for National Well-Being says that the Iranian Military will no longer classify transgender people (who are eligible a for medical discharged from the compulsory military service) as “people with mental disorders.”

In his January 6th interview, Mr. Hasan Mousavi Chelk said: “So far, transgender people were exempt from the military based on their situation as “mentally disturbed.” But by including this classification in their discharge paper, they have faced numerous problems. Therefore it was decided to end the practice.”

The new policy comes after two years of consultation between the National Well-Being Agency and the Iranian Armed Services. The new regulations will allow transgender people to be classified either as “people with hormonal imbalance” or “diabetics.”

Mr. Chelk says most of the Iranian public is not informed about transgender people, whom he describes as “people with sexual identity disorder.” He says the Iranian government considers transgender people as its citizens and has a favorable view towards them.”

According to Mr Chelk, there are currently 4,000 self-identified transgender people in Iran.

(translation by Hossein Alizadeh)

Read the original story on Fars News »

Read the story on the BBC »

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, met with approximately 30 advocacy leaders last week to highlight the State Department’s efforts to condemn an “Anti-Homosexuality” bill that is being debated in Uganda. The briefing was organized by the Public Affairs Bureau and provided a candid recount of U.S. diplomatic efforts to speak out against this unprecedented assault on basic human rights. Read more details in the new DC Agenda.

Excerpt:

Jon Tollefson, a State Department spokesperson, told DC Agenda that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has pledged on several occasions to the top U.S. diplomat engaged in Africa that he would stop progress on the anti-gay bill.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson received this assurance from Museveni on Oct. 24 during an in-person meeting with the president in Uganda and again during a phone conversation with Museveni on Dec. 4, Tollefson said.

“To have the Africa Bureau, the State Department and the White House so publicly working against homophobia, not just in Uganda, but in Rwanda, Burundi and elsewhere, is a major change of course,” said IGLHRC Executive Director Cary Alan Johnson who attended Friday’s meeting. “Ambassador Carson was unequivocal, and I believe that he will do everything in his power to help Uganda avoid this Bill.”

Photo: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Entebbe, July 2003. Photo by Paul Morse.

By: Ging Cristobal, IGLHRC Project Coordinator for Asia and Pacific Islands

Having been to many demonstrations, parades and rallies in the Philippines, it seemed to me that the LGBT imMORAL rally held in front of the Commission of Election office in Manila City last Wednesday, November 23, 2009 was somehow different. Despite the usual flamboyance for which LGBT demonstrations are known, most of the LGBT activists present seemed pained, aware that something quite serious and political was happening. The 150+ LGBT people and supporters, assembled in front of Manila Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in the Philippines, chanted “LGBT hindi immoral, ipaglaban ang dangal!” ( LGBT are not immoral, fight for your self-respect/dignity!)

View photos of the event »

Together with LGBT groups and supportive women’s groups, we marched through the streets of Manila to call for the accreditation of Ang LADLAD, an LGBT party seeking to run for a seat in Congress, and to remind the Philippines society that LGBTs will no longer tolerate the bigoted treatment we experience in our communities, workplaces, families, and our country.

This protest was organized to publicly oppose the homophobic and discriminatory decision made last November 11, 2009 by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ban Ang LADLAD from running in the 2010 national elections. The Comelec vehemently stated that the application of Ang LADLAD “must fail” because the petition is “dismissible on moral grounds” since Ang LADLAD “advocates immorality and homosexuals are a threat to the youth.”

Despite the occasional surface sign of cultural tolerance, discrimination against LGBT people is still an ever-present norm here. This discrimination ranges from individual and subtle to systemic and blatant. Prejudiced and bigoted remarks and treatment are so normalized that LGBT people have learned not to contest them, hoping for some measure of respect.

But: A transgender woman is passed over for a promotion because of her gender identity or can’t find work at all; only one lesbian parent attends her child’s school activity because the parents of the other children are uncomfortable seeing two women together as parents; only one member of a couple of same sex parents can be the legal parent of their adopted child and the other must be considered, “just a friend;” a butch lesbian will have to let go of her partner’s hand once they are noticed for fear of harassment; a man shoots a lesbian in the face because she was dating his daughter; transgender women are sexually harassed while their unrepentant attackers claim they were asking for it; and gay men are arrested for vagrancy and was released after being extorted by the police.

In short, the rights of LGBT people are not consistently respected by society, and the Comelec’s decision to deny accreditation as a political party to Ang LADLAD, a party that seeks to improve the lives of LGBT people in the Philippines, makes institutional discrimination clear. This discrimination and homophobia has been encouraged by the Philippines’ conservative Catholic history and society.

The Comelec decision shows that the government endorses and adopts this discriminatory attitude. It is proof that the state sees LGBT people as second class citizens, a minority group not to be taken seriously, and a group of sinners that need to be saved from their immoral lives. Comelec has spelled out these ideas in their decision.

The LGBT imMORAL protest march shows that LGBT people want change and we want it now. Legal and political reforms are necessary, but in addition, as LGBT people living in the Philippines, we also need to push the envelope to demand respect in all aspects of our lives.

A week after the imMORAL protest march, the Philippines LGBT community held its annual LGBT Pride March on December 5, 2009. Because of the Comelec’s decision, the parade was not only a declaration that yes, we are out and proud, but also a statement that we will continue to claim our rights. As taxpayers, as citizens of the Philippines, we deserve respect and equal treatment as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution and international law.

We will continue to fight for our rights.

Thursday, December 10th 2009 at 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters, New York

Webcasts of the event are available here:
English:
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/specialevents/2009/se091210pm2.rm
Spanish:
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/specialevents/2009/se091210pm2-orig.rm

The side event will explore grave and extreme human rights violations and discrimination occurring on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Such violations include attacks on the security of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and arbitrary arrest or detention.

Moderator:
Hans Ytterberg, Director-General, Swedish Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality

Panelists:

• Vivek Divan, Consultant with the UN Development Program, formerly with the
  Lawyer’s Collective in India, on the team that won the anti-sodomy law case in Delhi.
• The Rev. Kapya Kaoma, Anglican priest from Zambia now leading churches in the
  Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and PRA Project Director.
• Indyra Mendoza, Director of the Honduran lesbian and feminist organization Cattrachas.
• Victor Mukasa, Program Associate, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
  Commission, and co-founder of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).
• Sass Rogando Sasot, Activist, one of the founding members of the Society of Transsexual
  Women of the Philippines.

In collaboration with a coalition of non-governmental organisations defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Today is the 21st annual World AIDS Day, held on December 1st each year to raise awareness of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and to honor the memory of those who have died from HIV/AIDS and those who continue to live with the disease. This year’s World AIDS Day theme is Universal Access and Human Rights.

According to the World AIDS Campaign, the global incidence of HIV/AIDS is on the rise. There are over 33.4 million people living with HIV today and there were 2.7 million new cases in 2007. There were also a total of 2 million HIV-related deaths in 2007.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is committed to combating stigma-based discrimination in HIV/AIDS healthcare for all people, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

Transgender people and men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS across the globe. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005, over 71 percent of male adults and adolescents in the U.S. infected with HIV/AIDS were MSM. In Asia, MSM are 19 times more likely to acquire HIV infection than adults in the general population, and in China the odds are 45 times as high. Despite the vulnerability of high-risk LGBT populations, access to treatment, counseling, prevention and care is often denied to LGBT individuals because of discriminatory laws, policies and attitudes.

Similarly, international health care programming is not effectively targeting LGBT groups in need: In 2007, IGLHRC published a report analysing how the international funding community, governments, and NGOs fail LGBT people when HIV/AIDS programming does not address same-sex practicing people.

According to Michel Sidibé, the executive director of UNAIDS, the international community’s failure to address the health needs of LGBT people is not only a human rights travesty, but a public health crisis: “The failure to respond effectively has allowed HIV rates to reach crisis levels in many communities of men who have sex with men and transgender people.”

The World Health Organization has found that only 9 percent of men who have sex with men received any type of HIV prevention service in 2005 and UNAIDS has found that less than one percent of the HIV prevention needs of men who have sex with men were being met in 2006.

In a letter to Secretary of State Clinton sent on March 27, 2009, IGLHRC asked the Obama administration to increase funding to HIV programs for LGBT communities worldwide, and to discontinue funding anyone who perpetuates human rights abuses against LGBT people. The Global AIDS Coordinator’s office responded, affirming the administration’s commitment to addressing the HIV/AIDS needs of LGBT populations.

IGLHRC also continues to fight discriminatory laws that would accelerate the spread of HIV. Burundi is one of a few countries in Africa receiving funds from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) to expand their HIV intervention to include MSM. After Burundi’s National Assembly passed a provision criminalizing same-sex activity, IGLHRC and the Association pour le Respect et les Droits des Homosexuels (ARDHO) issued an appeal, asking the entire membership of Burundi’s Senate to vote against the legislation, arguing that it would accelerate the spread of HIV, by preventing MSM and other sexual minorities from accessing HIV prevention, treatment and care. On February 17, 2009, 36 out of 43 Senators voted to strike down the provision.

Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill would effectively ban any kind of community or political organizing around non-heteronormative sexuality and would seriously compromise HIV prevention activities and treatment in Uganda, which rely on the ability to talk frankly about sexuality and provide condoms and other safer-sex materials.

Join the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) in calling for the swift dismissal of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 and the protection of all Ugandans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Under international human rights law, everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Sexual and reproductive health is a fundamental aspect of this right and includes the right of full access to HIV/AIDS prevention, counselling, treatment and care. International organizations and national governments must take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that all sexual and reproductive health, education, prevention, care and treatment programmes and services respect the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities, and are equally available to all without discrimination.

To ensure that LGBT people living with or at risk of HIV/AIDS have access to the resources they need, the international community must continue to pressure governments to uphold their national and international human rights obligations and to respect, protect, and promote the lives and dignity of HIV positive and LGBT people everywhere.

To find out more about World AIDS Day visit:
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Campaign
US Department of Health and Human Services AIDS Awareness Days
UNAIDS