Schools must stop spreading homophobic and transphobic messages

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, has published a viewpoint on homophobic and transphobic bullying.

In schools across Europe young persons are being harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Homophobic and transphobic bullying is an every day reality in the lives of many. It is time to react – especially in view of several national studies and reports warning that there have been a number of suicides among young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons feeling rejected by their peers and families.

The scope of this problem appears to be large. A study in the United Kingdom showed that nine in ten secondary school teachers had witnessed children being subjected to homophobic bullying in their schools. Among primary school teachers two in five had made similar observations regarding children at this very early stage.

Such studies have also demonstrated that children in primary schools use homophobic remarks alarmingly often. They pick up and repeat negative jargon, most often without even understanding what the words refer to.

My recent report “Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Europe” contains numerous examples of how factually wrong information about LGBT persons is disseminated – sometimes also by schools themselves. This is a serious problem and may contribute to bullying and to cementing homophobic and transphobic attitudes.

School books used to spread prejudices

The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases in 1990. Despite this, prejudices and misunderstandings have too often lived on in teaching programmes.
Only this past summer was a decision taken in “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” to revise a school textbook describing homosexuals as “neurotic and psychotic persons” with an “abnormal, unnatural and degenerated sexual life”. From Lithuania I have received information that children have been taught that homosexuality is a sickness and that same-sex relationships destroy families.

In 2009 the European Committee of Social Rights set an important standard in its review of a complaint against Croatia regarding the content of a school biology textbook which was held to contain prejudiced information. The Committee found that “Certain educational materials which are used in the regular teaching programme are biased, discriminatory and degrading.” Croatia withdrew the textbook as a result of the Committee’s findings, though NGOs in the country still report similar problems with other textbooks.

“Don’t stand for homophobic bullying”

Some member states have taken encouraging initiatives. A national action plan in Norway targets schools at both primary and secondary level and has added an LGBT dimension to subjects in the mainstream curriculum. In Estonia the national study curriculum provides a basis for discussions on LGB issues. UNESCO is initiating an international consultation on homophobic bullying in educational institutions. NGOs conduct indispensable anti-homophobic bullying campaigns such as the Irish ‘Don’t stand for homophobic bullying’ initiative.

There is a strong need to review curricula and teaching materials in all member states of the Council of Europe. This was also emphasised in a Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendation which called on member states to provide “pupils and students with the necessary information, protection and support to enable them to live in accordance with their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Schools obliged to protect students

It is an obligation for all schools to protect their students from bullying and to teach respect and openness. School personnel need thorough training concerning non-discrimination issues. One important tool in this regard could be the Council of Europe training pack on violence reduction in schools.
Policy makers and school management need to give strong support to teachers in order for them to have the means and resources to create a healthy and inclusive environment in schools and classrooms.

Thomas Hammarberg

Ginosi Corporation's statement

Online travel agency Ginosi Corporation's disappointment on Radio Van's homophobic attitude:

Dear Radio Van Management,

We recently learned with shock and regret of discriminatory remarks that Shushanik Arevshatyan has made about gays and lesbians on the radio station's official website/blog. This puts Ginosi.com as a corporate sponsor of Radio Van in an awkward position not only with respect to our gay and lesbian customers, employees and business relations but also as a company that views corporate social responsibility and equal opportunity in its business practices as a top priority.

This letter is to inform you that having received this information, we are disappointed and feel put down by your organization. We feel necessitated to suspend all future sponsorship plans for Radio Van effective immediately. Furthermore, this experience has forced us to review our own due diligence process with respect to our corporate sponsorship programs. Namely, we will work to put procedures and processes in place to ensure that we will never again unknowingly finance bigotry.

With this letter we say good bye to Radio Van and finally, we believe that a public apology by Radio Van to the LGBT community is in order.

Yours truly,
Areg Ginosian
Chief Executive Officer
Ginosi Corporation

Interview with the president of PINK Armenia

Original post at the Neutral Zone

- Dear Mamikon, what is the overall situation with the LGBT community in Armenia today? What are the key challenges of the community?

People in Armenia still live with taboos and stereotypes and in many cases they mix tradition, religion, customs, habits and reality. In the past LGBT people were hiding because of intolerance, hate and ignorance, and the society thinks that we didn’t have gays at all and that this is something modern and European. In general, today people call whatever they don’t like ‘a European value’, for example gender equality, women’s role in the government and so on, but let me bring an example. What was Europe doing when at the beginning of the 20th century Armenia had women in the parliament and women diplomats? So human rights protection is a universal value and it belongs to Armenia as well.

LGBT still live with a fear and most of them are in closets. The majority doesn’t know anything about sexual orientation and gender identity, even they think that “having a different sexual orientation is immoral,” Neo-Nazi groups even say that heterosexuality is also immoral. These things show that the lack of education and knowledge makes people aggressive and they start to oppose anything they do not understand.

- What are the attitudes: in the society, families, workplace, media toward LGBT? Any changes in this respect in the last 5-10 years?

Our research on LGBT rights and violations in 2010 says that discrimination mainly starts in families and goes wider to schools, workplace, healthcare services, actually everywhere. The media usually promotes hate toward the LGBT community and we don’t have any laws to stop hate speech. Nowadays it is possible to find a few tolerant electronic media or newspapers, but the majority is homophobe, especially TV.

For example “Iravunk” daily often promotes hate crime and they present it as freedom of speech but actually freedom of speech and human rights violation are two different things and in civil and developed counties hate promoters are punished by law. On TV they use the theme of homosexuality for jokes, teasing it as an abnormal and immoral behavior. During the last 5-10 years LGBT people became more or less visible and LGBT issues are on the top of the discussion list. Whether the reaction of the society is positive or negative, the visibility of LGBT issues brings small changes.

-What is the relationship between the law and the LGBT community? Is the law discriminatory or does it protect the LGBT rights?

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 2003 but we don’t have any laws to protect LGBT people, to prevent violence, discrimination or hate speech. There aren’t any anti-discrimination laws in Armenia.

-Are there cases of violence against the LGBT community?

There are many cases of violence against the LGBT community, but mainly they are not registered as violence against LGBT or those cases are not registered at all. Cases of violence can be found everywhere, but for the most part they take place in schools, healthcare sector, police stations and army.

-Are there any positive developments?

The latest positive development was the Ombudsman’s cooperation with PINK, when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding and he announced that he and his team are ready to protect the rights of all people in Armenia and cooperate with human rights organizations. Another positive development is the existence of tolerant journalists and a few newspapers that cover LGBT issues.

The existence of networks and coalitions that support human rights brings positive changes into the society. One drop in the lake is not a big deal but later those drops will make a river and it will run to the lake.

- Is there anything else that you would like to add?

The Armenian Church, as they say, should be tolerant, spread peace and respect, but they are one of the main institutions that spread hate and intolerance against LGBT people. The topics they touch or present always come back to homosexuality and start to blame. In a recent case we had in Armenia, when the representatives of religious minorities and the Armenian Church had a conflict, during the press conference the priest talked about that conflict and religious minorities for a couple of minutes and then the whole press conference was related to homosexuality. On the other hand, it was the journalists who provoked the priest asking irrelevant questions, but the priest replied to their questions with pleasure blaming gays.

In Armenia, people still don’t know all the terms regarding LGBT issues. Many Armenians even think that gays are those who wear dresses, have make-up and behave like girls. As I mentioned, the lack of knowledge and information doesn’t let them to recognize the difference between gay/lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

By Phil Gamaghelyan

Armenia lifts travel ban for people living with HIV

The first achievement was amendment of the Law on Preventing the Disease Caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus based on UNAIDS HQ comments and recommendations. The Amendments of the Law (adopted 19 March 2009, ratified 6 April 2009) repealed earlier provisions restricting stay and residence of people living with HIV. However, according to the Law on Foreigners (Article 8/d), the entry, stay and residence of people with an infectious disease that threatens public health was prohibited, and HIV was included on a list of seven “infectious diseases” (Government Decree N49, 25 January 2008).

To fully rescind travel restrictions related to HIV, UNAIDS Armenia continued working with the National Assembly, Ministry of Health, and Migration department on revision of AIDS related sub-legislation. As a result of joint efforts the Decree N49 was reviewed and HIV was excluded from the list of seven “infectious diseases” that threatens public health during the Government session on 30 June 2011 (ref: Gov decree N896 – Ն, dated 30 June, 2011).

Naira Sargsyan, MD, MPH

Social Mobilization and Partnership Adviser

UNAIDS Armenia

In this regard UNAIDS posted a Press statement

GENEVA, 15 July 2011—The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) commends the decision by the Government of Armenia to lift its travel restrictions for people living with HIV. The reforms—which took effect yesterday—align the country’s legislation with international public health standards.

Restrictions that limit an individual’s movement based solely on HIV-positive status are discriminatory and violate human rights. There is no evidence that such restrictions protect public health or prevent HIV transmission. Furthermore, HIV-related travel restrictions have no economic justification, as people living with HIV can lead long and productive working lives.

“I welcome Armenia’s decision to lift its HIV-related travel restrictions,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. “I urge other countries to follow Armenia’s example and take the necessary steps to remove punitive laws and practices as a matter of priority,” he added.

With the removal of Armenia’s travel restrictions, UNAIDS counts 48 countries, territories, and areas that continue to impose some form of restriction on the entry, stay and residence of people living with HIV based on HIV status. Five countries deny visas even for short-term stays and 22 countries deport individuals once their HIV-positive status is discovered.

Homophobic and transphobic violence must be stopped

A few weeks ago, a peaceful Pride demonstration in Split, Croatia, was brutally attacked by thousands of hooligans, wounding over a dozen people. The counter-demonstrators by far outnumbered the police officers and Pride participants. The police did not fully succeed in protecting the demonstrators, who simply wanted to raise awareness about the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. These events unfolded after weeks of hate speech, threats, graffiti, flyers and social media inciting to hatred.

This is not the first time a manifestation against homophobia and transphobia has suffered assaults and threats from extremists.

In 2010 in Belgrade, Serbia, the police made heroic efforts to protect the first ever Belgrade Pride, but around 150 persons were injured during the confrontations, most of them police officers. Again, the counter-demonstrators outnumbered by far those marching in favour of LGBT rights.

In Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2010, the authorities had to mobilise a large police contingent to shield the Baltic Pride March from violent attackers.

There is a growing awareness among local authorities that peaceful Pride events must be allowed and protected; LGBT persons have the same rights as others to freedom of assembly and expression. This acknowledgement is of course positive.

The continued need for massive police protection however is very negative. It is high time for European politicians to seriously tackle the phenomena of homophobia and transphobia and their root causes. The first step is to recognise that the problem is serious and that systematic action is needed to promote awareness on all levels in society. Then there is an urgent need to counter all tendencies of discrimination against this group of people - also in official human rights and equality policies.

In the past five years I have monitored the implementation of human rights for LGBT persons in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The result was recently published in a report: “Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Europe”.

The report lists a number of obstacles to the full enjoyment of their universal human rights. It shows, for example, that homophobic and transphobic harassment in the workplace and bullying of LGBT persons in schools is common in practically all member states. The official registration of LGBT organisations was obstructed or refused in five countries in Europe, and attempts to criminalise “propaganda or promotion of homosexuality” were identified in three member states.

There has been little response to national studies and reports which flag that a disproportionate number of young LGBT persons see no other way out than committing suicide due to the non acceptance of their sexual orientation or gender identity by their peers and families. Very few countries recognise homophobic or transphobic violence in their hate crime legislation.

Transgender persons face particularly severe human rights problems in almost all areas of life. If they want their preferred gender to be legally recognised, in 29 member states they face a legal requirement to undergo gender reassignment surgery, leading to infertility. Some 15 member states even require the transgender person to be unmarried in order to obtain recognition, which entails mandatory divorce if the person is already married.

Too often politicians and policy makers ignore the human rights of LGBT persons when designing policies or drafting legislation. There are disturbing examples of debates in national parliaments which are characterised by a high level of prejudice, bias and outdated information, including claims that homosexuality is an illness

Governments need to pursue legislative reforms and social change to enable LGBT persons to fully enjoy universally recognised human rights. National and international monitoring, including by Equality Bodies and Ombudsman Offices, is needed to measure progress.

Change is only possible if European countries show more genuine political will to address this problem with much more determination than has so far been demonstrated.

Thomas Hammarberg

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights