GENEVA — The United States has voted against a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution condemning the use of the death penalty against those convicted of consensual same-sex sexual relations. The resolution passed by a 27-13 vote margin. Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador,…
The United Nations human rights office has expressed regret over a recent Singapore Supreme Court ruling to uphold a law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations between adult men, calling the directive a “missed opportunity” to strike down the law. Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner…
New Delhi — India’s Hindu nationalist party, that has opposed any move to nullify the Supreme Court’s re-criminalizing of consensual same-sex relations has won the general elections dealing a huge setback to efforts to scrap a colonial-era law that made it punishable by up to life imprisonment, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP, Indian…
Brunei Darussalam — The Sultan of Brunei of has decreed into law the strict Islamic Sharia penal code that will eventually lead to death by stoning for crimes of a sexual nature, including those of same-sex relations, reports GayAsiaNews.com. “I place my faith in and am grateful to Allah the almighty to announce that tomorrow…
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM — Brunei’s new law mandating the stoning of gay people has been officially delayed. GayAsiaNews.com reports that the new penal code that calls for death by stoning for same-sex relations, robbery, insulting or defamation of the Prophet Mohammed as well as a list of other sexually related offences such as rape and adultery…
DHAKA — Using the Bangladesh’s New Year festivities, LGBT community members marched wearing the colors of the rainbow as an act of defiance and an appeal for the Muslim-majority country to change its law that considers same-sex relations as “unnatural” and a crime, reports GayAsiaNews.com. “Whether you are pro or anti LGBT, you cannot help…
Speaking before an audience at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Richard E. Hoagland, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs stated in a Press Trust of India report that appeared in Siasat.com, “We monitor the situation in India, where the Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling…
NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court’s ruling recognizing transgender people as the third sex might pave the way for decriminalizing same-sex relations in India, say gay-rights lawyers and activists in India, GayAsiaNews reports. In a landmark ruling on April 15, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and AK Sikri directed that transgender people…
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM — Brunei has adopted a new penal code that calls for death by stoning for same-sex relations which will come into effect April 22, reports GayAsiaNews.com. Same-sex relations have long been a crime in Brunei, but the maximum punishment till now has been a 10-year prison sentence. The United Nations human rights office…
