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Beyond Asia
Haiti Senate votes to ban gay marriage
The Haiti senate has voted to not only criminalise gay marriage, but also any public demonstration of support for homosexuality. The approved bill, which is yet to be signed into law, states that parties, co-parties and accomplices of a homosexual marriage can be punished by three years in prison and a fine of about USD […]
Rhode Island Legislature passes bill to protect youth from ‘conversion therapy’
The Rhode Island legislature passed a bill which protects minors from ‘conversion therapy’- sometimes referred to as “sexual orientation change efforts” or “reparative therapy” that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. These practices are based on the false understanding that being LGBTQ is a psychological illness that needs to […]
US Fifth Circuit lifts court order against ‘religious freedom’ law in Mississippi
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted a court order against a ‘religious freedom’ law in Mississippi that will facilitate extensive anti-LGBT discriminatory practices, citing the technical issue of lack of standing for plaintiffs. The Court issued a verdict allowing for the implementation of HB 1523 which had been blocked as a result […]
ACHPR adopts Resolution 376 on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Africa
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights has adopted Resolution 376 on the situation of human rights defenders in Africa. The resolution recognizes widespread violation of rights of human rights defenders and their family members, who are routinely subjected to violations such as unlawful detention, acts of torture, extrajudicial and summary execution, enforced disappearance, […]
Kenyan legislature amends education law, obliges state schools to distribute sanitary pads
The Kenyan legislature has amended the Basic Education Act, which places an obligation upon the government to provide “free, sufficient and quality” sanitary pads to girls in state schools. The amendment comes after a long campaign by school girls to make sanitary pads free, given that lack of access to menstrual hygiene products is said […]
Amendment to Sierra Leone’s Citizenship Act
The Sierra Leone legislature has amended its Citizenship Act to allow both women and men equal rights in conferring nationality on their children. Prior to this critical reform, the Citizenship Act of 1973 denied the children of Sierra Leonean women who were born abroad the right to acquire citizenship of Sierra Leone. The right was […]
Marriage with rapist no longer a basis for exonerating the offence of rape in Jordan, Lebanon, Tunsia and El Salvador
The provision that allowed rapists to escape penalty by marrying their victims was repealed by Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and El Salvador in their respective legislations. For many years, civil society activists had pointed out how the provision was often misused, especially in poor, rural areas where parents married their minor pregnant daughters to rapists in […]
Chile Senate approves gender identity bill
The Senate of Chile has approved the Gender Identity Bill, which lays down the procedure for amending the name and gender markers directly in the Civil Registration Office. The Bill also reaffirms gender identity among the prohibited grounds for discrimination. However, the bill has been criticised as it does not recognise the right of children […]
Canadian Parliament to criminalise hate propaganda against gender variant persons
Canadian Parliament has cleared the bill C-16, which amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination. It also amends the Criminal Code to extend the protection against hate propaganda to any persons who are distinguished by gender identity or expression. The bill […]
Law privileging transmission of citizenship by unwed mother to child, as compared to fathers unconstitutional, rules SCOTUS
In its judgment in the case of Sessions, Attorney General v. Morales Sanatana, the Supreme Court of USA (SCOTUS) has held that the provisions The Immigration and Nationality Act, which privilege unwed mothers who are US citizens over unwed fathers who are US citizens in determining whether their children may claim citizenship, are discriminatory. Under […]