Hundreds of Swiss gay couples said yes in 2022

Hundreds of Swiss gay couples said yes in 2022 In the first six months that same-sex marriage was legal in Switzerland, 749 couples tied the knot, according to government statistics. An additional 2,234 couples changed their registered partnership to a marriage.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland on July 1, 2022, after 64% of voters […]

Hundreds of Swiss gay couples said yes in 2022 — LGBTI Recht in der Schweiz – Droit LGBTI en Suisse – by Professor Andreas R Ziegler

USA: Kentucky passes the ‘worst anti-trans bill’ in America

Interesting Article: Masuma Shahid, ‘Equal marriage rights before the European courts’ in ERA Forum

Download: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12027-023-00729-w

ILGA presents its unique knowledge base on laws, human rights bodies, advocacy opportunities, and news related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics issues worldwide

See: https://database.ilga.org/en

USA: Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs Arkansas bill restricting toilet use for trans students

World Athletics bans trans women from female events

Interesting Article: Claerwen O’Hara (La Trobe Univ. – Law), In Search of a Queerer Law: Two People’s Tribunals in 1976 (Australian Feminist Law Journal, forthcoming)

Here’s the abstract:

In 1976, two people’s tribunals took place which considered issues relating to non-normative sexuality. ‘People’s tribunals’ are civil society initiatives that assert a popular jurisdiction which operates outside of both the state and international institutions. In Brussels, there was the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, which treated ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ as a crime. On the other side of the world, in Sydney, there was the Tribunal on Homosexuals and Discrimination. These people’s tribunals are sometimes treated as forerunners to later developments relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights in international law. In this paper, by contrast, I engage in a queer reading of the Brussels and Sydney Tribunals, whereby I consider how the legal framings and procedures adopted by the two tribunals diverged from the LGBTI rights framework that would later develop. In doing so, my aim is to shine a light on alternative, queerer legal possibilities, as well as to open up a conversation about using people’s tribunals as a mode of queer activism into the future.

Uganda Parliament passes bill that would punish gay sex with life imprisonment

Uganda’s Parliament Tuesday unanimously passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023, a bill that would make the “promotion” of homosexuality punishable by 20 years’ imprisonment and homosexual sex acts punishable by life imprisonment. It also allows the death penalty for engaging in “aggravated acts of homosexuality,” which is when one of the persons has HIV or a disability. The bill must receive assent from Uganda’s President before it can become law.

Several provisions in the bill, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), violate the freedom of expression, association, and liberty guaranteed by international law and the Ugandan Constitution. These include provisions declaring all homosexual intercourse as nonconsensual, prohibiting people from identifying as a gender other than male or female, criminalising same-sex marriage, and punishing any person that abets any acts of homosexuality. HRW also claimed that out of the 30 African countries that have banned same-sex relations, Uganda is the first to outlaw merely even identifying as part of the LGBTQ community.

The bill was preceded by called by the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, which was struck down by Uganda’s Constitutional Court. While introducing the new bill, Ugandan MP Asuman Basalirwa said “This House had an opportunity to correct the anomaly [in 2014], but it was lost. We now have another opportunity to follow all the procedures to have a law in place.”

The Attorney General of Uganda, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, has described this bill as redundant, claiming that most of these proposed offences are already criminalized in various existing acts. Amnesty International has also called the legislation “ambiguous, vaguely worded” and “deeply regressive”.

The legislation currently awaits the signature of President Yoweri Museveni. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has urged President Museveni not to give assent to the bill.

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Estonia – Registered partnership could be viewed as a marital status

Registered partnership must be registered in the population register on the same basis as marriage

More: https://www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/5832-registered-partnership-could-be-viewed-as-a-marital-status

Uganda dispatch: Parliament passes controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill, setting the stage for court challenge

awrence Alado is a JURIST Staff Correspondent in Uganda. He reports from Kampala.  

With over 389 MPs sitting in person, Parliament this afternoon passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The votes for the passing of the Bill were more than the required 2/3rds, and though challenged by several human rights activists, the august house has proceeded to exercise its duty enshrined in the Constitution.

Just three days ago, the Attorney General, Mr. Kiryowa Kiwanuka, criticized the Bill for being redundant. The legal adviser of the Government declared that Clause 2 of the Bill has already been provided for, as unnatural offences are specified under the Penal Code Act, Cap 120 and so are several other clauses of the Bill relating to attempts, aiding and abetting the acts penalized under the Bill.

There have also been criticisms that the law infringes on the rights of people, but the Speaker responded to this criticism both during the parliamentary session and also on her Twitter page, saying that the law does not derogate non-derogable rights. She asserted: “We recognize that the Constitution contains non derogable rights and in this process the House has striven to recognize those non derogable rights. However, the norms and aspirations of the people of Uganda will always remain supreme.”

The Right Honorable Speaker also stated that the passing of the Bill was in the interest of the people of Uganda and therefore noted that such will is what entitled the Parliament to “derogate” the rights of sexual minorities. Commenting on the same, she said that, “This House will not be shy to restrict any derogable rights to the extent that the House recognizes, protects and safeguards the reigning will, norms and aspirations of the people of Uganda.”

It is significant to note that the Bill holds the record of being one of the fastest Bills to have been passed by the Parliament of Uganda. The President himself, while addressing the Parliament on 16^th March, had called upon scientists to assist to determine whether or not the acts prohibited under the Bill are “…by nature or nurture.”

Also of greater importance is the fact that just a few kilometers away from Kampala, where the Parliament of Uganda sits, strikes have intensified in Kenya over a ruling of the Supreme Court upholding the rights of sexual minorities.

The Ugandan Bill is not yet law and is subject to the scrutiny and signature of the President. However, it can be said without doubt that the Act, once passed, will be subject to interpretation by the country’s Constitutional Court. This is because human rights activists have criticized the Bill for limiting the rights already protected and guaranteed by the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the State.

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