gays rights atr human rights.

[tasio-from-sweden]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In many parts of the world, being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered is not seen as a right, but as a wrong.
Homosexuality is considered a sin, or an illness, an ideological deviation or a betrayal of one's culture. The repression that lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (lgbt) people face is often passionately defended by governments or individuals in the name of religion, culture, morality or public health. By dehumanizing gay people and maginalizing them as "other", leaders know that they are fostering a climate in which the public will not be concerned about the human rights of lgbt people.
Human rights are founded on the concept for the inherent dignity and worth of the human person. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) opens with the simple but powerful statement that "all members of the human family" have equal and inalienable rights, an affirmation that should be seen as of the most significant legacies of the 20th century.
As the new millenium commences, a sizeable minority of the world's population continues to be denied full membership of that "human family". Governments around the world deploy an array of repressive laws and practices to deprive their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered citizens of their dignity and to deny them their basic human rights. Lesbian and gay people are imprisoned under laws which police the bedroom and criminalize a kiss; they are tortured to extract confessions of "deviance" and raped to "cure" them of it; they are killed by "death squads" in societies which view them as "disposables"; they are executed by the state which portrays them as a threat to society.
These are violations of some of the fundamental rights which the UDHR seeks to protect and which AI campaigns to defend. AI addresses questions on LGBT issues of: equal right to life; equal freedom from arbitrary arrest; equal freedom from torture and ill-treatment; equal freedom of expression and association; equality before the law; and equality in dignity and rights.
First Steps of AI: Coming out for LGBT rights
As far back as 1979, AI recognized that "the persecution of persons for their homosexuality is a violation of their fundamental rights" (Decision 7 of its 1979 International Council Meeting). However, it was only in the early 1990s that AI began to campaign in earnest against this kind of persecution.
The intervening period was one of intense debate within the international movement how far AI could go in defending the rights of lesbians and gay men, given the culturally diverse nature of the movement and the unclear scope of international human rights standards at that time.
After years of international debate and sustained campaigning by the lesbian and gay rights movement and by many within the AI movement, a highly significant step forward was taken in 1991, when AI adopted a policy affirming that prosecuting people for their homosexuality was a form of prosecution. Although other forms of anti-gay persecution were already covered in AI's mandate - such as the torture or execution of gay people, or the arbitrary imprisonment of gay right activists - AI now committed itself to campaigning for the release of anyone imprisoned solely because of their homosexuality, including those prosecuted for having sex in circumstances which would not be criminal for heterosexuals. Such people would be considered prisoners of conscience.

It was a powerful assertion of principle: homosexuality, like race or gender, is not acceptable basis on which to imprison people.

A role for AI in the struggle for LGBT human rights

As a grassroots international human rights organization, AI has a particular and useful role to play in locating lgbt rights in the consideration of human rights generally, not as special rights, but as fundamental rights ensured to each and every member of society, AI has also provided valuable support to lesbian and gay human right defenders, who are among those under threat. They frequently operate in environments where the very right of their organizations to exist is denied by the law because what they are advocating - the right to love and live with who you want - is a criminal offence.

AI is uniquely placed to consolidate this international movement by helping to provide safe spaces for discussion and networking, by helping to protect the spece in which LGBT right defenders can work, and by sharing its skills in research, campaigning and advocacy.
AI can offer the LGBT rights movement the support of its international activist membership, with its wide-ranging experience and skills in areas such as campaigning and lobbying the UN. It can offer the benefits of its near-global presence, its capacity for sustained country monitoring, and its international perspective.
Jimmy Leon
Educator activist Amnesty International USA
Co-ordinator for African-Rapport
Contact address.
http://www.freewebs.com/african-rapport