[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1644-E1647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION
______
HON. TOM LANTOS
of california
in the house of representatives
Friday, August 7, 1998
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call the attention of my
colleagues to the global persecution of individuals based on their
sexual orientation. Yesterday, I chaired a briefing of the
Congressional Human Rights Caucus on this alarming situation. Mr.
Speaker, I am especially grateful for the support and the participation
of our distinguished colleagues, Congressman Benjamin Gilman,
Congressman Barney Frank, Congressman William Delahunt, and
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
I initiated yesterday's Caucus briefing because of alarming reports
about the ongoing persecution of individuals based solely on their
sexual orientation. These unacceptable violations of human rights have
included arbitrary arrests, rape, torture, imprisonment, extortion and
even execution.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday's briefing was not a discussion of our own
nation's laws relating to homosexuality, transsexuality, or
bisexuality. I have my own well know views on this issue, which I have
clearly stated a number of times in the last couple of weeks when the
domestic legal implications of these issues have been considered by the
House of Representatives. Other Members clearly have different views,
and they have clearly stated those.
Whatever our views on our own domestic laws, Mr. Speaker, the Caucus
and all Members of Congress should be standing together in decrying the
persecution of individuals and the denial of human rights for any
reason, including sexual orientation. The purpose of the Congressional
Human Rights Caucus briefing was to uphold the human rights that have
been categorically denied all over the world to this persecuted
minority.
If a government denies human rights to one group, then it is possible
for that government to deny rights to any other group or every group.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people in communities all
around the world have been brutally punished both physically and
mentally for exercising their fundamental human rights to freedom of
speech, freedom of association, and freedom of belief. Mr. Speaker,
these violations fall squarely within the scope of international human
rights laws.
Nowhere have basic human rights been more comprehensively defined
than in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and this year we
will celebrate the 50th anniversary of this historic document. Mr.
Speaker, the Declaration guarantees the protection of human rights for
everyone. This most assuredly does not mean so long as an individual
shares our political views, our religion, the color of our skin, our
sexual orientation, or anything else. The 1993 UN Human Rights
Conference in Vienna stated it unequivocally by demanding: All Human
Rights for All!
We heard exceptional testimony yesterday. The individuals who briefed
the Caucus made statements that were head and shoulders above the usual
information that we receive at Caucus briefings. These outstanding
witnesses were Cynthia Rothschild, Co-Chair of Amnesty International's
Members for Lesbian and Gay Concerns; Scott Long, Advocacy Coordinator
of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; Regan E.
Ralph, Executive Director of the Women's Rights Division, Human Rights
Watch; and Serkan Altan, a brave young man who was subjected to extreme
violence in Turkey because of his sexual orientation and who has now
been granted asylum in the United States based on his homosexuality.
Mr. Speaker, these witnesses exposed the tragic fact that basic human
rights are not applied everywhere and that they most certainly are not
accorded to everyone. I ask, Mr. Speaker, that their statements be
placed in the Record, and I urge that my colleagues give considerable
attention to their striking remarks.
Cynthia Rothschild, Co-Chair, Amnesty International Members for Lesbian
and Gay Concerns
I am pleased to be with you today in this precedent-setting
meeting. I'd like to thank Congressman Lantos and his staff
for making this briefing possible, and I'd like to thank all
of you who took time from your busy schedules to be here. I
also want to acknowledge Serkan, who will share with us today
his personal history as a survivor of human rights violations
targeted because of sexuality.
I am particularly glad to be able to contribute to a
discussion about an urgent and often overlooked facet of
international human rights law and activism--that dealing
with human rights violations perpetrated because of sexual
identity and conduct.
Documentation from around the world confirms that lesbians,
gay men and transgender people are killed, raped, assaulted,
subjected to the death penalty, imprisoned, beaten, forced to
undergo medical and psychiatric treatment designed to alter
our sexuality, brutalized by other forms of torture and
arbitrarily deprived of basic liberties because of our real
``or perceived'' sexual identity and behavior.
These abuses are often sanctioned by the state through
legal decree, tacit acceptance (for instance, the refusal to
investigate violations or to punish perpetrators) or through
promoting violence by official and unofficial state actors
(ranging from police to immigration officials to prison
guards). Factors such as gender, culture, race, ethnicity,
age and geographic location affect the various forms of
violations which take place. But no region escapes
culpability--sexual behavior and identities are criminalized
or vilified, albeit in different ways, all over the globe.
My argument here is quite simple--these abuses occur every
day, they pose very real dangers to many, many people,
they're in violation of international law, they disrupt lives
and sometimes take them--and they must be stopped.
In this presentation, I will offer an overview of human
rights violations as they pertain to sexual identity and
practice and I will delineate some of the more salient and
complicated issues implicit in these experiences. This
information, as well as that included in Regan, Scott and
Serkan's presentations, is designed to be useful to you as
lawmakers, as human rights supporters and as concerned
citizens.
Lest I be too vague, let me first set context with a range
of specific examples (and please note that because I cite
specific countries in these examples it should not be
interpreted to mean that these violations don't take place in
many other nation-states):
The following information has been compiled and documented
by Amnesty International, the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Watch, the
International Lesbian and Gay Association, the Magnus
Hirschfield Center for Human Rights and countless other local
organizations.
Some of the more flagrant human rights violations, gay,
bisexual and transgender people face include abuses in the
following three general, and sometimes overlapping,
categories: (1) rights to physical and mental integrity, (2)
freedom of association and expression, (3) discriminatory
laws and discriminatory application of laws.
1. VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS TO PHYSICAL AND MENTAL INTEGRITY
A. Execution Codified by Law: Under Islamic ``Sharia'' law,
homosexuality is seen as an offense against divine will and
is punishable by death. This is true in nine countries,
including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Mauritania, and Iran.
In the latter country, death can be administered by stoning
or by cleaving bodies in two.
In Afghanistan, you may recall recent reports (carried in
the New York Times) of men convicted of sodomy being placed
next to standing walls and buried under rubble as the walls
were toppled upon them. While intended as a form of
execution, it is of interest to note that some people were
not actually killed in this process--so having a wall
collapse on a person becomes simply a form of torture instead
of execution.
B. Extrajudicial Execution (deliberate and unlawful
killings by, or with the consent of, the state): In Colombia,
death squads--often consisting of off-duty police--have been
known to target areas where gay men congregate. As part of
social cleansing efforts, victims of these death squads are
gunned down in streets, or forcibly `disappeared.'
C. Other Forms of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading
Treatment: In Saudi Arabia, male same-sex sexual behavior can
be punished by flogging.
On a different but related note, Amnesty has noted that
lesbians and gay men in the custody of government officials
are particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treated.
Consider the following quotation from an anonymous witness
from Peru:
``In 1994, in Lima a very violent raid was carried out in
the capital where about seventy-five lesbian women were
beaten up and ill-treated by police. Prostitutes get a very
rough time in jail. But the treatment of lesbians was even
worse. Lesbians were beaten up because however degrading
prostitution can be [perceived to] be, it is still regarded
as normal behaviour, whereas lesbianism is seen as too
threatening to the status quo.'' [Amnesty International,
``Breaking the Silence: Human Rights Violations Based on
Sexual Orientation''--1997]
And to cite a particularly relevant and recent example in
the United States--most of you will remember the case of
Abner Louima, a Haitian man who was attacked by
[[Page E1645]]
New York City policemen while being held in a precinct.
During the beating (in which a toilet plunger handle was
shoved into Louima's rectum), police allegedly yelled
``faggot'' as they perpetrated the attack.
Other topics which fit into this category of abuses
include:
Forced psychiatric treatment to alter homosexuality;
Forced medical treatment;
Rape and other sexual abuse; and
Arbitrary detention.
2. VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND EXPRESSION
In Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni speaking to the press
on July 22nd of this year stated: ``When I was in America
some time ago I saw a rally of 300,000 homosexuals! If you
have a rally of 20 homosexuals here, I would disperse it.''
Abuse of ``public decency'' and ``public scandal'' laws: In
China, homosexuality per se is not criminalized, yet gay men
and lesbians are often arrested under charges of
``hooliganism.''
In Romania, Article 200 is used to harass and imprison gay
men and lesbians under ``public scandal'' charges. (Scott)
Other topics which would fit into this category of abuses
include:
Persecution of Human Rights Defenders;
Prohibition of establishment of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) that work on issues of sexual
orientation;
Harassment of NGOs that do that work; and
Abuse of surveillance laws.
3. DISCRIMINATORY LAWS OR DISCRIMINATORY APPLICATION OF LAWS
In the United States, three states (Kansas, Missouri and
Arkansas) have sodomy laws which target only same-sex sexual
behavior--and in other states, facially neutral sodomy laws
are more often enforced for homosexual than heterosexual
conduct.
In Austria and the United Kingdom, age of consent laws are
higher for gay men than they are for heterosexual and lesbian
couples.
Given this broad brushstroke citation of the range of
violations we're talking about, I'd like to shift to the next
main section of this presentation, in which I seek to name
some of the more salient and complicated theoretical points
to keep in mind:
Not everyone we're talking about is ``gay'' per se. Many
people are targets because of real or perceived sexual
orientation. First, it is important to note that people who
engage in same-sex sexual behavior do not necessarily claim
the label of ``lesbian'' or ``gay,'' nor can those terms be
used to accurately describe same gender sexual conduct across
regions and cultures. The sexual identities people claim
often have little to do with how they are perceived.
Distinctions in perceptions, labels and identities open up
doors for arbitrary discrimination based on appearance. This
discrimination could, and does, elicit harassment and
violence by police or immigration officials. This is true
both for women who appear ``too masculine'' or men who appear
``too effeminate.'' A related point here is that sometimes it
is the behavior itself which is deemed ``deviant'' and not,
in fact, the appearance of the person engaging in it.
Effects here include asylum claims being denied, rape in
detention and cases of violence being ignored by police and
governments.
Gender play a primary role in the enactment of human rights
violations. Women often face different and additional
obstacles due to sexist proscribed roles within a given
society, due to codified government discrimination, and due
to the invisibility of women's sexual lives.
Women and men often have different legal and de facto
access to public space, particularly since in many countries
women are restricted by family and societal discrimination in
ways that affect their mobility. This has particular bearing
on lesbians' (and all women's) ability to leave the countries
in which they are being persecuted in order to (a) simply
escape, and (b) engage in an asylum process.
Partly because of this difference in access to public
space, gay men are more often targeted under sodomy or
``public scandal'' laws--in effect, their sexual expression
is more ``public'' and more apt to be scrutinized by the
state in particular ways. Sodomy laws in some countries
(Armenia, Chile, Ghana and India, among other nations, target
only male same-sex sexual behavior).
While some might argue that this invisibility ``protects''
lesbians from persecution under these laws, in truth, it is
clear that this is far from the case. Women are often
harassed under these and other laws, are subjected to rape,
sexual abuse and forced pregnancy, and ultimately suffer from
sexism as well as homophobia in any given society.
Sodomy laws differ from culture to culture, and within the
U.S., from state to state. There are no fixed definitions of
sodomy, no standard understandings of what comprises it or
who can commit it. ``Sodomy'' can mean two men in a
longstanding monogamous relationship having sex in the
privacy of their bedroom, or it can mean particular sex acts
committed by married heterosexual people.
The last main point:
Police, other state agents and government officials often
act with impunity--It is too often true that the general
public as well as law enforcement institutions/sites
(including courts, police precincts, borders) will not come
out publicly in favor of the rights of gay, bisexual and
transgender people to be free from harassment and violence.
These attitudes allow state actors the sense that they can
violate the rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexual and
transgender people with little chance of accountability.
This, in turn, affects the willingness of gay people to
report harassment, physical abuse and other violations. Fear
of reprisal also inhibits proper reporting. Ultimately, there
is the risk of a shroud of silence encircling these
violations, and the risk of a cycle of abuse as a direct
result.
In this final section, and in conclusion, I wish to
delineate a few of our shared primary goals as human rights
activists and lawmakers with regard to human rights
violations and sexual orientation. (Please note that we've
drawn up specific recommendations which are geared much more
to practical use by U.S. lawmakers--I encourage you to take
copies before you leave today).
Our work--and by ``our'' work I specifically mean that of
the domestic non-profit sector along with concerned actors in
the U.S. government--i.e. we on this panel and you in this
audience--our work calls on all governments to be aware of
and accountable for the violations of human dignity, physical
integrity and fundamental liberties targeted at lesbians, gay
men, bisexuals and transgender people.
Our work calls for governments to end cycles of impunity
which surround violations connected to homosexuality by
punishing perpetrators to the fullest extent allowed by law.
And our work calls upon us all to consistently include
issues of sexuality in all of our conversations and
documentation about human rights violations.
Given the severity of human rights violations perpetrated
because of sexual orientation, identity and conduct, the
dialogue about this set of issues must become more prominent
in human rights and law-making circles. Those working in NGO
circles will work alongside you as we all face those who will
engage in both vitriolic hyperbole and subtle attacks on
dignity and bodily integrity.
This, after all, and at its core, is a matter of principle.
As we seek to create a world in which all people recognize
that human rights protections are indivisible and afforded to
all people, we must work toward providing protections and
recourse for those most vulnerable to sexuality-based human
rights violations. We must argue together that human rights
violations enacted because of sexual orientation are not
acceptable and will not be tolerated.
____
Scott Long, Advocacy Coordinator, the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Congressional
Human Rights Caucus, for inviting us to testify today.
I want to begin by telling three anecdotes from Romania--
because I know them, and the people in them, well. In 1997
two 18 year old youths--boys--were picked up by the police in
Iasi, in Romania for kissing each other at night in a park.
They were taken to a local police station and beaten,
nonstop, for twenty-four hours. Their teeth were knocked out;
they were knocked unconscious, and they were forced to clean
out the police toilets and urinals with their bare hands.
They are now free, but facing trial and five years in prison,
for so-called ``sexual perversion.''
In 1995 Mariana Cetiner, a woman living in a small Romanian
town, was arrested for asking another woman to have sex with
her--which is illegal in Romania. The other woman had
reported her to the police. Mariana was sentenced to three
years in prison for this crime. I interviewed Mariana in
prison. She had enormous bruises; she had been physically and
sexually abused by the guards. The prison doctor told us,
``After all, she is different from other women. You can
hardly expect the guards to treat her as if she were
normal.''
In 1992 a lonely 17-year old placed a personals ad in a
Romanian newspaper, looking for a lover. The ad was answered
by a 21-year old; they met, and they fell in love. They were
both men. They were reported to the police as homosexuals by
the 17-year old's sister. They were both arrested and charged
with ``sexual relations with persons of the same sex.'' They
were held in prison for three months, pending trial. There
they were both raped, repeatedly, by inmates with the
encouragement of the guards. They were finally freed, partly
because of pressure from Amnesty International. But the older
of the two, traumatized by what had happened to him,
committed suicide.
I am not telling these stories to single out Romania as a
uniquely repressive place. Far from it: these stories could
happen in many countries around the world; they could even
happen in many localities in the United States. Topeka,
Kansas, for instance, has a law which prohibits two people of
the same sex from having a conversation about having sexual
relations. Quite literally, if an undercover policeman
approaches another man, says, ``Do you want to have sex?''
and the other man answers anything at all--short of running
away, speechless--that other man has committed a crime.
My point is that all these arrests, and the laws under
which they happen, are wrong wherever they take place. The
principle we are collectively here to represent is simple:
that treating people differently before the
[[Page E1646]]
law because of their sexual orientation is wrong. In most
countries in the world, two heterosexuals kissing in a park
would not be sent to jail; a seventeen-year old boy who fell
in love with a girl would not be sentenced to a hell of rape
and abuse in prison for it; and one heterosexual who simply
asked another to have sex would not serve a three-year
penitentiary term for it--even, I believe, in Washington,
D.C. To impose these punishments on comparable acts simply
because they are committed by people of the same sex is both
barbarous and absurd.
This principle of equality has been affirmed, as Ms. Ralph
noted, by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which is
a landmark decision--Toonen v. Australia, in 1994--held that
no state can allot discriminatory enjoyment of any right in
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
because of someone's sexual orientation. This means that the
Romanian legislation which permits the arrests I've just
described, and imposes those punishments, stands in violation
of international law. And so do similar laws wherever they
are in force.
Yet this decision has a further and important ramification.
In gauging the situation of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and
transgender people in a country, it is not enough to look at
whether that country has so-called ``sodomy laws,'' or
whether they are enforced. One must look at how that
country's laws, and its policies and practices, affect the
other basic rights of gays and lesbians. Do they enjoy the
right to speak freely? To move about in the street freely? To
gather together, to organize in a group? Can they hold jobs,
can they survive economically, while being open and honest
about themselves? Will the police and the state defend them
if their rights are violated? And here I want to refer back
to Mr. Altan's testimony about Turkey: a country in which
homosexuality is nominally legal, but in which there is in
fact a culture of continual abuse toward sexual difference,
enabled and reinforced by a culture of impunity. In many
countries around the globe, police and officials harass gays,
lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people in constant,
intrusive, and degrading ways. In Italy, in Albania, in Cuba,
police raid gay bars and discotheques, check the IDS of
patrons, and ostentatiously write down their names and
addresses. In Thailand, the Ministry of Education tries to
ban gay men from becoming teachers; in Bulgaria, the bar
association tries to ban them from becoming lawyers. In
numerous countries there are laws against certain kinds of
stigmatized public behavior, laws which may not even
specifically mention homosexuality, but which are used
against people whose demeanor or clothes or friends put them
under the suspicion of being different. In China and in other
countries with Communist-era legal codes, provisions against
``hooliganism'' are used to arrest gay men whenever they
gather for any purpose. In Cuba, Romania, and elsewhere, laws
punish homosexual acts ``which cause public scandal''--
meaning that if a private sexual act becomes known to anyone
else who disapproves, it can earn a prison term. In many
Western countries, laws against so-called ``public lewdness''
are used to impose fines or prison terms on people who simply
look gay in public when seen by the discriminating eye of
a policeman.
Moreover, some of the worst abuses against gays, lesbians,
bisexuals, and transgender people are not committed directly
by the state--but by non-state actors, who inflict them with
the indifference or even connivance of the police. In Brazil,
as IGLHRC has documented in its report ``Epidemic of Hate,''
gays and transgendered people are murdered daily by gangs and
death squads. But similarly, on the streets of American and
Western European cities, hate crimes--violence, beatings, and
bashings--ensure that people will think twice before they
wear a pink triangle in public, or hold hands on the street.
And in many countries, the attempts of gays, lesbians,
bisexuals, and transgender people to organize in response to
these abuses are also met with repression. In Argentina, in
Hungary, in Lithuania, in Russia, gay and lesbian
organizations have been declared illegal on pretexts--because
they allegedly ``threaten public morals,'' or ``public
health.'' These actions violate rights to assembly and
association which are protected in virtually every
international human-rights instrument. Gay and lesbian
publications have been threatened, punished, or closed down
in Greece, in Russia, in Hungary. In Zimbabwe, where there is
a tiny and beleaguered organization called Gays and Lesbians
of Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has campaigned for years
to eliminate that group and erase all traces of homosexual
identity from his society--calling them ``beasts,''
``perverts,'' ``worse than dogs, and pigs,'' and stating
repeatedly that ``homosexuals have no rights whatever.'' What
has been the result? Last month, Keith Goddard, one of the
leaders of that gay and lesbian group went to the police to
report a man who had been blackmailing him with false
allegations. In a case that perfectly evidences what Mr.
Rahman has said about the denial of protection to gays and
lesbians, when Mr. Goddard admitted to the police that he was
homosexual, the police immediately arrested him, for sodomy.
He now faces up to seven years in prison.
And why has the President of Zimbabwe devoted years to
vilifying gays and lesbians, to blaming them for all his
country's economic and social ills? Because he needed a
scapegoat. As he flailed for support for his own corrupt and
decaying regime, nothing was easier than to incite hatred
against people who were, fortuitously, both invisible--unable
to speak for themselves--and universally despised. This
demonization of the different is familiar to us, or should
be, from Nazi Germany. Gays and lesbians worldwide now seem
to serve as a new, favorite victim.
The power of human rights in our century, of a discourse,
as a symbol, is that it counters this demonization. Human
rights knows no scapegoats, it recognizes no sacrificial
lambs, and it accepts no exceptions to the rule. It insists
that people cannot be singled out: that no quality basic to a
human being, be it her religious belief, the color of her
skin, her ethnicity or sex or her sexual orientation, be used
as a pretext to deny her the rights which should be enjoyed
equally by all.
Today, Mr. Chairman, members of the Caucus, we ask you to
join us. Let us insist together.
Insist that the United States Government work for an end to
discrimination, persecution, and abuse based on sexual
orientation, gender identity, or HIV status, around the
globe.
Insist that the US State Department specifically monitor
sexual orientation as a category in its yearly review of
countries' human rights records.
Insist that public officials, in law enforcement and
elsewhere, across the United States be trained in human
rights and in issues surrounding sexual orientation; and
insist that in US programs to promote human rights abroad,
sexual orientation be recognized as a category and component.
Insist that, as one first step toward creating a culture of
non-discrimination in this country, states repeal their
remaining sodomy laws; and insist that bills before this
current Congress which expressly and invidiously target
groups based on sexual orientation be defeated, as they
deserve.
Insist that the US ratify human rights covenants it has so
far refused to endorse, including the Convention on the Right
of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights; for it is sheer hypocrisy for us
to hold others to noble promises that we have not even made
ourselves.
We ask you to speak out, because silence is deadly. I would
like to close by quoting the lines of a Hungarian poet, who
was gay--and who suffered from that imposed silence, silence
about the self, that I have spoken about here. Mr. Lantos
will not mind if I cite him first in Hungarian:
Akik a termeszettol felnek, termeszetellenesnek neveznek
bennunket. De eygedul a hallgastas termeszettellenes.
``Those who despise nature call us unnatural. But silence
is the only unnatural act.''
____
Regan E. Ralph, Executive Director, Women's Rights Division, Human
Rights Watch
Thank you, Congressman Lantos, your colleagues on the Human
Rights Caucus and your staff for inviting us to discuss this
important human rights concern.
It has been fifty years since governments from around the
world created the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The
fundamental and very simple idea underlying the declaration
and the very notion of human rights is this: all human beings
are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
No one should be denied their fundamental human dignity no
matter what their race, their sex, their religion, their
politics, their national origin, their birth or other status.
No one should be denied personal security. No one should be
tortured. No one should have his or her private life invaded.
No one should be forced to live as a second-class citizen,
denied the rights extended to others.
A very basic guarantee of dignity agreed to fifty years
ago. And yet in the past fifty years the world's commitment
to really and truly protect everyone's fundamental dignity
and human rights has been tested time and again.
Protecting women's human rights, to give one significant
example, until recently simply was not seen as the
responsibility of governments. Yet by exposing abuses against
women and the role of governments in perpetrating or allowing
the abuse, women have claimed the recognition that they too
are entitled to enjoy their basic rights.
At Human Rights Watch, we have documented the violence,
coercion and discrimination inflicted on women by governments
and individuals around the world. Violence that directly
destroys women's right to physical security and that limits
women's ability to exercise other basic rights.
Discrimination in law and practice that seeks to keep women
under the thumb of some other authority.
Oftentimes, this violence and discrimination directly
targets women's sexual and reproductive lives. Women are
raped in war, sometimes with the express purpose of making
them pregnant with the ``enemy's'' progeny. Women and girls
are forced to undergo virginity tests. In many countries,
they are forced into marriage at a young age or trafficked
into forced prostitution and repeatedly raped. All of these
violations grossly abuse women's fundamental rights. All of
them are prohibited by international law. And, after years of
silence, the international community has strongly condemned
such actions.
[[Page E1647]]
But the rights of women remain under siege, particularly in
the area of extending dignity and autonomy to them in their
sexual lives. Here we come to another test of the universal
nature of human rights because women--and men--also are
subject to violence, coercion, and discrimination that is
targeted at their real or perceived sexual orientation or
identity. In countries throughout the world, lesbians and gay
men are subject to discriminatory legislation, violent
treatment and persecution by police and other authorities.
Again the ugly argument that some groups are not actually
entitled to enjoy their basic rights rears its head. But this
argument is as wrong about sexual orientation as it was about
women.
On the contrary, international human rights law prohibits
state-sponsored and state-tolerated violence and
discrimination against individuals that attacks their sexual
identity, sexual orientation or private sexual practices. The
most basic human rights guarantees found in the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights--the right to life, liberty and
security of the person, the rights to freedom of expression
and association; the right against arbitrary detention; the
right to privacy, and the prohibition against
discrimination--extend to all individuals regardless of their
status.
In fact, international law condemns the denial of
fundamental liberties to persons on the basis of qualities
inherent to their individuality and humanity. These include
race, religion, colour, sex, national origin, birth,
political opinion, and other status. Sexual orientation, too,
is such a quality, a deeply rooted and profoundly felt
element of selfhood.
You have heard cases of the gross abuses perpetrated
against individuals because of their real or perceived sexual
orientation. Add to those the fact that many countries,
including Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe, criminalize
consensual sex between same-sex adults. In China, lesbians
and gays have been harassed by police, jailed, and fined. In
different countries, gay and lesbian organizations and
activities are targeted with violence and harassment that has
forced them to close their doors or end their perfectly legal
activities.
At the same time, the principle of universality is being
upheld. Flagrant violations of human rights have been
denounced at both the national and international levels.
South Africa's new constitution, for example, specifically
prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.
International human rights bodies have also declared
discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation or
identity to violate human rights.
The European Court of Justice ruled last summer that
employers could not deny the same employment rights to
lesbian couples that are extended to unmarried, heterosexual
couples. Another European body, the Court on Human Rights,
has repeatedly held that laws criminalizing consensual,
private sexual acts between adults violate internationally
protected right to privacy.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body charged
with monitoring compliance with the Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, considers sexual orientation to be a status
protected from discrimination under international law. In
Toonen v. Australia, the Committee declared that the rights
protected by the Covenant cannot be denied or limited on the
basis of sexual orientation or identity.
In closing, I would like again to underscore the principle
of universality; human rights guarantees must extend to all.
If it is deemed acceptable to exclude one group from human
rights protections, it is that much easier to exclude another
group and another and another. The only way we as individuals
and members of a democratic society have of preserving our
own rights is to ensure that no exceptions are made in
respecting the rights of all.
____
Serkan Alton
Aslan Yuzgun, the writer of Homosexuality In Turkey says
``Without a doubt, homosexuals are the worst treated minority
in Turkey.'' The worst thing to be in Turkey is to be a man
who is openly homosexual. Not only is it despised, it is seen
as an affront to Turkish culture and an insult to Turkish
manhood.
The police use terror and violence against homosexuals by
permission of the central government. It is impossible for us
to achieve any legal redress. No one--including the
government, the police, the media--cares about how
homosexuals are treated. Turkey has been a huge prison for
all of us, mostly for homosexuals.
Any boy aged 8 years or older who displays any hint of
effeminacy is very likely to be raped. Then the torture
starts, especially in school. We homosexuals learn in school,
along with other things, that we are going to be raped,
beaten, and tortured both by the public and the police.
When I was 11 years old, I moved to Istanbul, the most
modern city in Turkey.
When I turned 12, I started to go to a private school.
I soon realized I was an outcast. They started to call me
names like ``queer,'' ``boy,'' ``faggot,'' which I was not
familiar with because I looked and acted like a girl. Things
got worse when Rock Hudson had AIDS. Then my nickname became
``AIDS''. Still I had no idea what it meant to be a
homosexual.
Everywhere I went, I was followed, taunted, and insulted.
There were many kids who would ty to beat me up. I didn't
fight back, instead I kept my distance from them. Even though
I sat quietly in the corner, my hair was pulled, my head was
kicked, my private parts were pinched. Some threw balls and
objects at me. Some pushed me and tried to make me fall.
There was almost no day for me to live my childhood with
joy.
As the years passed by, I accepted the abuse. I knew they
were going to hit and insult me, but I took it.
When I was 16, the head of the class forced me to have sex
with him. He was known as one of the strongest guys in the
school. Then he told every detail to everybody. While he
became a hero, I was emotionally and physically abused more.
I was called ``a man with no dignity,'' and ``disgusting
queer.'' Some spit on my food, and I was left alone in one
corner.
Every time I tried to pick up something from the floor, I
felt pencils, fingers trying to penetrate me.
Things got worse and worse.
The school bathrooms were a place for the boys to gather
and smoke and I was scared to go there. I had heard that
other homosexuals had tied up their penises so that they did
not have to go to the bathroom, so I tried to do the same.
The walls and the doors of the bathroom were full with my
name and telephone number. At night, I would try to wash it
off and my hands would hurt.
Meanwhile, I saw the pictures of gays who were arrested
because of their homosexuality on the cover of the nationwide
daily newspapers. The headlines were ``The End of a Queer,
Homosexual Hunt,'' I still remember the pictures. They were
dropped on the floor, beaten by metal covered truncheons and
their heads were forcefully shaved. I still remember one
particular picture of a transsexual whose breast implants
were beaten out, covered all over with blood because of the
torture.
I knew what would happen to me if I admitted my
homosexuality. I put books on my head so I could walk better,
I tied my wrists up with wood pieces so I would not look like
a sissy. I cried day and night, I prayed day and night so
that they would stop abusing me.
There were so many incidents that caused me a lot of pain.
I started to cut my arm with a bread knife in the shower,
then used salt. I screamed, I yelled, I hit my head from one
wall to another. I tried to kill myself three times. There
was nobody I could talk to.
In the school, many teachers including the president of the
school knew exactly what was going on. The president even
invited me to her room and asked me if I was mentally ill.
She implied I was homosexual. I was kicked, beaten, slapped
in the face and insulted by her many times.
I prayed. I was the only one who openly prayed five times a
day like Muslims do. While I was praying, I was kicked and
washed by cold water in the winter time. I was told, ``You
are a faggot. God will not forgive you, you are wasting your
time.''
They took my money from my wallet and said, ``You are a
faggot, you can find the money from someone.'' They were
trying to say that I could make money by selling my body.
They even came to my house when I was alone and sexually
harassed, then robbed me.
Just like me, gays in Turkey are raped often by the police
and the society. The police arrest gays, beat them up with
metal covered truncheons and torture them. The Turkish
government approves of the torture and doesn't allow us to
speak out. Gays are in fear all the time.
When I was 18, I came to the United States as a student. I
started to realize what happened to me and what is happening
to the others was and is not supposed to happen.
So I came to the point when I said, ``The hell with
culture, the hell with tradition.''
I became an activist. The anti-terror law in Turkey says,
``anyone who speaks against the country in or out of the
country can be arrested.'' Knowing that most writers,
journalists, and human rights activists are imprisoned in
Turkey, I decided to apply for a political asylum in the U.S.
based on my homosexuality. Last year I was granted political
asylum.
While seeking asylum, I researched and found a lot of
information about the persecution of gay people in Turkey.
In 1989, during a police raid on the houses of homosexuals,
a 17 year-old gay boy committed suicide by jumping from a
sixth floor balcony in order not to be tortured by the police
chief who had tortured him before.
A Turkish gay leader, Ibrahim Eren, gave a press conference
in 1990 and he said that the same police chief had beaten
transsexuals. The police chief then stomped on their chests
until their breast implants were forced violently and
bloodily through the skin.
Recently, a gay festival designed to draw attention to gay
and AIDS issues was banned by the central government because,
``it is against Turkish culture and public morality.''
Just like I have, gays in Turkey experience cruel, inhuman
attacks from the government. We can't do anything. Gays who
report police torture are silenced or tortured more and more.
The Turkish government meanwhile does a great job of denying
and covering up all this torture.
We have to tell the Turkish government that it is not OK to
attack, torture, and kill anyone just because they are gay.