The Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity (ECOM) presents a Regional report on the state of LGBT rights in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region for 2023. The report examines legislative developments, trends in rights violations, and progress and obstacles to ensuring the health and rights of LGBT people. Virusoff summarizes the main aspects identified in the research conducted.
Key trends:
- Growth in rights violations: documented cases of LGBT rights violations continue to increase, indicating the need for further advocacy and awareness raising.
- Development of a network of documenters: the increase in the number of documented cases indicates the development of a network of documenters and the level of trust in them, but this growth is not always proportional to improvements in the quality of documentation.
- Willingness to assert rights: there is a marked increase in willingness to assert rights in countries with higher levels of acceptance of LGBT persons, but in countries with low levels of acceptance there is often re-victimization by perpetrators.
- Clusters of rights violations: clusters of human rights violations, including violence, abuse of power, denial of medical care, and others, remain relevant.
- Violations of the rights of LGBT people in health care settings: there are systemic violations of the rights of LGBT people in health care settings, including openly hostile attitudes and incidents of sexual violence.
Emerging trends and challenges:
- Denial of asylum: there are documented cases of denial of asylum applications due to persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Outing and denial of education: there has been an increase in cases of outing in the educational sphere and denial of the right to education for LGBT people.
- Use of social media for attacks: there is an increase in the number and impunity of cases of social media being used to organize physical violence and blackmail against LGBT people.
- Street attacks: there has been an increase in street attacks and attacks in public places, often without proper investigation and punishment.
The ECOM Regional report emphasizes the need for further efforts in the fight for the rights and health of LGBT people in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Working to protect the rights of LGBT people requires a systematic approach, cooperation between human rights organizations and state institutions, as well as increased awareness and education among LGBT people, as well as among medical professionals and society at large.
The full version of the Regional Report on Violations of the Right to Health of LGBT People in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region in 2023 is available here.