Interesting Article: Nathan H. Madson has published Finding the “Humanity” in Human Rights: LGBT Activists and the Vernacularization of Human Rights in Hong Kong (Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 47, no. 1, February 2022)

Nathan H. Madson has published Finding the “Humanity” in Human Rights: LGBT Activists and the Vernacularization of Human Rights in Hong Kong (Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 47, no. 1, February 2022). Here’s the abstract:

Through an ethnographic analysis of Hong Kong LGBT activists’ fight for a gender recognition ordinance (GRO) that would simplify the process for transgender Hongkongers to change their legal gender, a paradox emerged: Why was a human rights framing of LGBT issues problematic when human rights were central to locals’ understanding of what it meant to be Hongkongers? Local LGBT activists’ vernacularization of human rights—or the process of localization of international human rights law into culturally relevant frameworks—hinged on reframing the need for a GRO as a matter of humanity, not human rights law. Relying on citations of human rights law among “ordinary citizens” violated the existing ways in which Hongkongers talked about human rights as a method of distinguishing Hong Kong from the rest of the People’s Republic of China. Furthermore, this need to differentiate emerged from the 2014 Umbrella Movement in which prodemocracy activists occupied various urban centers in Hong Kong for seventy-nine days. The Umbrella Movement caused a shift in which ordinary citizens became responsible for each other and defending what made Hong Kong unique. Ultimately, the vernacularization process requires closer attention to the ways in which human rights are being talked about on the ground.

Iran executed two gay men on sodomy charges on Sunday, local human rights groups and media organizations have reported

The theocratic state has previously used its sodomy charge to execute LGBTQ+ people, according to The Jerusalem Post. The outlet cited research from a 2008 British dispatch that Iran has executed 4,000 to 6,000 LGBTQ+ people since its 1979 Islamic revolution. Since the revolution, Iran’s laws are dictated by an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam.

Read: https://www.advocate.com/world/2022/1/31/report-iran-executed-two-men-over-charges-related-homosexuality

On 20 December 2021, Lena Holzer defended a thesis at the Graduate Institute, Geneva on: “The Binary Gendering of Individuals in International Law: A Plurality of Assembled Norms and Productive Powers of the Legal Registration of Gender”. The jury members were Professor Janne Nijman (chair and internal examiner), Professors Paola Gaeta and Elisabeth Prügl (co-supervisors) and Professor Dianne Otto (external examiner).

Using a transdisciplinary approach, this thesis analyses how international law has been involved in making gender a personal legal identity characteristic that is assigned to individuals at birth. It analyses norms from various fields of public international law, including norms on development, humanitarian law, human rights law and passport regulations, as well as rules of private international law. By drawing on queer and feminist theories and assemblage thinking as methodological tools, it contributes to queer-feminist approaches to international law and legal pluralism. It concludes that ‘queering’ legal gender categories in international law could be achieved through efforts to ‘de-propertise’ the categories by decreasing their value for the accumulation of people’s economic, symbolic and political capital. Moreover, it develops assemblage thinking as a queer-feminist method that allows taking into account a plurality of subjectivities, feminist positions and norms in the study of international law. 

Currently, Lena is a consultant for the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Intersex Youth and Student Organisation (IGLYO). In the future she plans to continue with research and teaching in international law.

See: https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/events/binary-gendering-individuals-international-law-plurality-assembled-norms-and

Afghanistan LGBTQ+ after Taliban takeover face extreme violence

Human Rights Watch Tuesday released a report showing that LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan have experienced increasing violence and threats to their safety since the Taliban took complete control of the country on August 15, 2021.

From October to December 2021, Human Rights Watch interviewed 60 LGBTQ+ Afghans about their lives under Taliban rule. Most of those who were interviewed reported being “attacked, sexually assaulted, or directly threatened by members of the Taliban because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” Some have even relocated to nearby countries with greater protections for the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

Although the ousted President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, in 2018 criminalized same-sex sexual relations, the Human Rights Watch report said that the Taliban vowed to take a hard line against the rights of LGBTQ+ people and even cited sharia law. “For homosexuals, there can only be two punishments: either stoning, or he must stand behind a wall that will fall down on him,” according to a Taliban judge.

Organizations assisting LGBTQ+ Afghans say they have been contacted by hundreds of individuals seeking to flee Afghanistan. However, even if barriers to resettlement did not exist, LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan face unique issues when attempting to relocate. This includes gender-nonconforming individuals being potentially spotted by Taliban officials when passing through routine checkpoints on public roads or going to the country’s passport office, as well as lesbian or bisexual women not being able to escape on their own, as Taliban law prohibits women from traveling without male relatives.

Human Rights Watch ended its report by urging the United Nations bodies and concerned governments to use whatever diplomatic leverage they have with the Taliban to stop the targeting of LGBTQ+ people.

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Holocaust Memorial Day: How the Nazi pink triangle became a defiant symbol of LGBT+ rights

France bans barbaric conversion therapy – no ifs or buts

Hong Kong court rules trans people must undergo invasive surgery to change legal gender

Read: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/01/26/hong-kong-trans-gender-id-law-court-appeal/

Namibia High Court refuses to recognize same-sex marriage

The High Court of Namibia Thursday ruled against recognizing same-sex marriages.

The judge agreed with the arguments put forward by the applicants, but he held that the High Court is bound by precedent. The Supreme Court had previously held in the case of Chairperson of the Immigration Selection Board v. Frank that same-sex relationships are not legal in Namibia.

Two same-sex couples had filed a joint application for recognition of their marriages. The parties were married in South Africa and Germany, respectively, to Namibian citizens.

Judges Hannelie Prinsloo, Orben Sibeya and Esi Schimming-Chase noted that they must follow the 20-year-old Supreme Court ruling even though the reasoning is outdated and wrong. They further noted that it is time to recognize that homosexuality is part and parcel of the fabric of society and that homosexual relationships must be afforded the same rights as other citizens.

The court also stated that the Supreme Court had wrongly interpreted international law in the Frank case. They further found that this discrimination based on orientation amounted to “cherry-picking of human rights” and stated that: “The Constitution must, because it is a moving, living, evolving document, stand evolution and the test of time, be broadly interpreted so as to avoid the austerities of tabulated legalism.”

Applicants’ Lawyer Carli Schickerling said that they are “moderately satisified” with the judgment and are likely to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The post Namibia High Court refuses to recognize same-sex marriage appeared first on JURIST – News.

Interesting Articles on “Queering International Law”

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on “Queering International Law”. The symposium includes an introduction by Gráinne de Búrca and contributions by Damian A. Gonzalez-Salzberg, Odette Mazel, Bérénice K. Schramm, Juliana Santos de Carvalho, Lena Holzer, & Manon Beury, Dianne Otto, Giovanna Gilleri, and Claerwen O’Hara.

Hungary – Ombudsman’s decision concerning a case of a trans employee

More: https://www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/5556-hungary-ombudsman-s-decision-concerning-a-case-of-a-trans-employee-113-kb