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Send your communications by email to: andreas.ziegler@unil.ch
The 2027-32 strategy sets a common direction for ensuring that LGBTI people fully enjoy their human rights
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted the organisation’s first Strategy for equal rights for LGBTI people which provides a structured framework for implementing existing human-rights commitments to advance equality and prevent discrimination and violence.
UPCOMING EVENT     The United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) requires UN member states to report approximately every four and a half years on their human rights progress and receive recommendations from other states for continued improvement. Join us on Monday, September 21, for a panel of international scholars and human rights defenders to discuss the progress and regressions that the U.S. and other countries have made on LGBTQI rights. These countries will be reviewed in November 2026 at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Register today!    |
RSVP Today: https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8y7_5DDiQjWt7u410PvL-g#/registration
Outright International is currently seeking a Senior Program Manager for a new, multi-year programme supporting LGBTIQ+ rights, spanning several of our core programmatic regions. The role will lead partner grantmaking, capacity strengthening, and international advocacy work in close collaboration with in-country civil society partners.
For more information, please see the posting here. (https://outrightinternational.bamboohr.com/careers/84)
Poland has started legally recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other EU countries. This follows a chain of rulings: the EU’s top court said in late 2025 that Poland must recognize such marriages, Poland’s own top administrative court agreed in March 2026, and registry offices began applying this in practice on 22 August 2026. This happened even though Poland’s president vetoed related bills in July and the country’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled against recognition days later.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday criticized Ecuador’s newly enacted adoption law, which took effect on August 14 after lawmakers approved it 118-0, saying that provisions restricting adoption by lesbian, gay and bisexual persons and permitting the loss of parental authority over certain medical decisions involving transgender children violate equality and child-rights protections.
The Organic Reform Law of Various Legal Bodies for the Streamlining of Adoption was enacted as part of an effort to accelerate adoption proceedings and reduce the amount of time children spend in institutional care. Ecuador’s National Assembly approved the measure on July 28, with 25 lawmakers abstaining, and President Daniel Noboa communicating his assent on August 13.
HRW said the reform extends an existing restriction on adoption by same-sex couples by expressly requiring individual adopters to be heterosexual. Ecuador’s Constitution already provides in Article 68 that adoption “shall only be permitted for different-sex couples.” According to HRW, however, the previous Children and Adolescents Code prioritized heterosexual married couples without expressly excluding single applicants because of their sexual orientation.
The organization raised concerns over provisions governing parental authority. The legislation identifies parental support for medical, surgical or pharmaceutical procedures intended to “modify the biological sex” of a child as conduct that may justify judicial termination of parental authority. If both parents lose that authority and no eligible relatives assume care, the child may ultimately become eligible for adoption. HRW warned that the provision could discourage families of transgender children from seeking medical advice because of possible state intervention.
The controversy comes months after Ecuador’s Constitutional Court strengthened protections concerning gender identity. In April, the court held in Case 1313-19-JP/26 that authorities could permit a 17-year-old adolescent to change gender information on identification documents after an individualized assessment of maturity, informed and persistent consent, family support and psychosocial evidence. The court emphasized that the judgment concerned civil-registry recognition rather than medical intervention.
Ecuadorian constitutional jurisprudence has separately recognized protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and linked gender identity to privacy and the free development of personality. HRW urged Ecuadorian authorities to amend the legislation, arguing that adoption decisions should turn on an individualized assessment of a prospective parent’s capacity and the best interests of the child rather than sexual orientation.
The post Human Rights Watch condemns Ecuador’s adoption law for discriminating against LGBT parents and transgender children appeared first on JURIST – News.
One lawyer called the move critical to “ending decades-long discrimination against gay and bisexual men.”
Fabiana Banzer and Scarlett Rocha became the first same-sex couple to have a civil marriage recorded in Bolivia on Friday (7 August), after a legal battle that lasted three years and 10 months.
The couple initially applied to marry on 12 October 2022. With legal support from the LGBTQ+ rights organisation IGUAL Bolivia, they challenged the authorities through a lengthy administrative process that ultimately culminated in two constitutional injunctions. Their marriage was finally recognised and legally protected by the Bolivian state.
More: https://www.thepinknews.com/2026/08/10/bolivia-same-sex-marriage-legal/
