It's Time to Stop Torture

Crimes of Hatred & Silence

1. Overview 2. Children 3. Corporal Punishment 4. Impunity 5. Juvenile Justice 6. Sexual Identity 7. Women & Girls

A lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights march in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1998 the South African Constitutional Court ruled that laws criminalizing consensual sex between men violated the rights to equality, dignity and privacy enshrined in the post-apartheid Constitution. Photo © Eric Miller/Panos Pictures

Alla Pitcherskaia, a member of lesbian youth organization in Russia, says she was beaten by members of a government militia and was threatened with forced medical treatment because of her sexual identity and her activism.

Until recently male homosexuality was punishable by law in Russia. Lesbianism, by contrast, has tended to be treated as a mental disorder warranting psychiatric treatment. The police are known to have placed lesbians in psychiatric hospitals against their will solely on the grounds of their sexual orientation – sometimes at the request of family members or friends.

Alla says the Russian militia repeatedly detained her for the crime of “hooliganism.” While in detention, she was beaten and pressed to name lesbian and gay friends. She was also threatened with being placed in a psychiatric institution.

At the same time, Alla Pitcherskaia’s girfriend was held against her will in a psychiatric institution. When she visited her girlfriend, Alla was herself registered as a “suspected lesbian” and told to go to her local clinic for outpatient sessions. When Alla failed to attend these sessions, she received written “Demands for Appearance” threatening her with forced institutionalization.

Alla Pitcherskaia is currently in the United States where she has lodged an application for asylum. Her application was initially rejected by the US Board of Immigration Appeals, in part because they claimed the motive for the forced instutionalization was the desire to “treat” or “cure” and not to punish and therefore was not “persecution”. However, a federal court reversed the Board’s decision, ruling that “ Human rights laws cannot be sidestepped by simply couching actions that torture mentally or physically in benevolent terms such as ‘curing’ or ‘treating’ the victims.”

Open hatred, hidden violence

According to international human rights standards and treaties, everyone has the right to express their sexuality free from coercion, discrimination and violence. However, in many parts of the world, being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered is not seen as a wrong, not a right.

Stepping outside the roles expected of men and women can put lesbians, gay men and bisexual and transgender people at risk of violent human rights abuses at home, in the community and at the hands of the state officials who are protect their health and safety.

While governments usually deny committing torture, the repression that lesbians, gay men and bisexual and transgender people face is often openly and passionately defended in the name of culture or religion. Such repression may even be facilitated by specific legal provisions, including often vaguely worded laws about moral offences or threats to public health.

Torture and ill-treatment of lesbians, gay men and bisexual and transgender people have been reported in a wide range of state institutions such as hospitals and psychiatric institutions around the world. In some societies, homosexuality is treated as a medical or psychological disorder and lesbians and gay men have been targeted for medical experimentation and forced psychiatric treatment designed to “cure” their homosexuality.

Medical “treatment” of lesbians, gay men and bisexual and transgender people against their will and aimed at changing their sexual orientation or gender identity is cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which could amount to torture. It should be prohibited in all circumstances. The involvement of health professionals in such “treatment” violates international codes of medical ethics prohibiting their involvement in torture or ill-treatment.

However, it was less than ten years ago that the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, finally removed homosexual orientation from its International Classification of Diseases. Some national medical and psychiatric associations have yet to follow the WHO’s lead.

While government officials may be open about promoting hatred of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the consequences of prejudice and discrimination typically remain hidden by a wall of taboo and secrecy. Police and judges often turn their backs on allegations of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, particularly if these allegations involve sexual violence. People who seek protection against homophobic threats and violence know that by doing so they are calling attention to their sexual identity and exposing themselves to further harassment and violence.

As a consequence, grave human rights abuses continue to be committed by perpetrators who know that they are unlikely to be held accountable before the law.

Breaking the silence

Until recently the silence and indifference surrounding the torture and ill-treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people was reflected in how human rights were defined and defended internationally. Issues of sexuality and sexual orientation rarely figured on the agendas of the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations. While human rights organizations like Amnesty International have focused public attention on the plight of imprisoned political dissidents, those persecuted as “sexual dissidents” remained largely forgotten victims.

The world can no longer remain silent. Over the last three decades, movements have emerged all over the globe to defend the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. These movements have campaigned for the decriminalization of homosexuality, for an end to police brutality, and for equal protection before the law. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists have won impressive victories, winning legal reforms and bringing about changes in cultural attitudes. But perhaps the most enduring victory is that, at the start of the 21st century, lesbian and gay rights are finding a voice across the globe. The daily struggle of activists in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East challenges the lie of those who claim that homosexuality is “not part of our culture.”

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