by Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East
NEW YORK CITY, United States – On May 22, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting systematic discrimination and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Turkey. The report called on the Turkish government for a change in law and policy to offer greater protection to LGBT people. It also called on the European Union to make Turkey’s membership aspirations contingent on ending abuses relating to gender and sexuality..
“Democracy means defending all people’s basic rights against the dictatorship of custom and the tyranny of hate,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Where lives are at stake, Turkey needs to take concrete action and pass comprehensive legislation to protect them.”
The report includes over 70 interviews and documents how gay men and transgender people face beatings, robberies, police harassment, and the threat of murder. It also documents how lesbian and bisexual women confront physical and psychological violence within their own families.
For more information, please see:
BBC – Facing Hate Crime in Turkey – 23 May 2008
Human Rights Watch – Turkey: Homophobic Violence Points to Rights Crisis – 22 May 2008
NEW YORK CITY, United States – On May 22, the United Nations General Assembly elected fifteen member states to the Human Rights Council for three year terms. Bahrain was one of six states contesting four Asian seats. In the vote, Bahrain followed Japan, but was ahead of South Korea and Pakistan; Sri Lanka and East Timor failed to secure enough votes.
In a written statement, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, Bahrain’s prime minister, said, “The achievement is an honest international recognition of the good human rights situation in the kingdom and comes to crown the government’s successful policies to protect human rights.”
However, several rights groups described Bahrain as “not qualified” to sit on the Human Rights Council. For example, Paula Schriefer, the director of advocacy for Freedom House, said, “Bahrain does not have any right to be on the Human Rights Council… It organizes crackdowns on its political opposition, it remains a monarchy, it has arrested many activists that remain in prison and we have reports of torture of those people.”
For more information, please see:
Gulf Daily News – Societies Hail New Rights Role – 23 May 2008
The National – Bahrain Celebrates UN Post – 22 May 2008
United Press International – 15 Elected to U.N. Human Rights Council – 22 May 23, 2008
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A High Court judge reviewed the case of Nour Miyati, an Indonesian maid whose toes and fingers were amputated following alleged abuse by her sponsor and his wife. In a previous ruling all abuse charges against Miyati’s male employer were dropped. The female employer confessed to abuse and was sentenced to 35 lashes. Reviewing a previous ruling, the judge dropped charges against the wife of Miyati’s sponsor and overturned the female employer’s 35 lash sentence.
Miyati told Human Rights Watch that her employers “withheld her passport, knocked out a tooth and caused damage to one of her eyes.” Miyati received treatment in a Riyadh hospital in March 2005 for “gangrene, malnourishment and other injuries” and that delays in treatment resulted in her losing her toes and fingers.
The court ruling granted Miyati 2,500 riyals as compensation, or approximately US$670, a small fraction of what such injuries would normally garner in Saudi Arabia. “The meagre compensation of 2,500 riyals is a slap in the face… showing that a foreign domestic worker’s life and limb is not valued on the equal basis of a Saudi,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.
“Instead of instilling confidence among migrant workers that they can seek redress through the Saudi justice system, this decision shows that even a case involving egregious abuse, ample evidence, and intense public scrutiny has not been given fair treatment.”
For more information, please see:
AFP – HRW Slams Saudi Ruling over Abused Indonesian Maid – 22 May 2008
Human Rights Watch – Saudi Arabia: Nour Miyati Denied Justice for Torture – 21 May 2008
The MEMRI Blog – Abused Indonesian Maid Gets Paltry Compensation – 21 May 2008
