Swiss violated asylum law in ignoring thousands of Iraqi applicants

Image via Wikipedia

The Swiss Federal Office for Migration violated asylum and constitutional law by ignoring 7,000 - 10,000 asylum applications lodged by Iraqis at Swiss embassies in Syria and Egypt between 2006 and 2008, an external inquiry into the matter by former federal Judge Michel Féraud has found. The government has taken note of the report.

Féraud said that around 3,000 outstanding applications were still legally valid and should be processed by the end of 2013. However, the Government has maintained that no disciplinary action will be taken due to the lapse of time and that officials have not abused their authority in failing to process the claims.

The Swiss Senate adopted a proposal for the abolishing of the asylum procedure from abroad in December 2011. Both former federal Judge Féraud and the Swiss Refugee Council consider that this procedure should be kept.

Via: ECRE

Related articles

• Paper: In Europe but not necessarily of it: Switzerland, queer refugees, and Amnesty International (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Iraqi parliament condemns deportations from Europe (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Why did Switzerland ignore thousands of Iraqi asylum requests? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Paper: In Europe but not necessarily of it: Switzerland, queer refugees, and Amnesty International

By Michael Dreyer and Jonathan Gibbs

In a referendum on June 5, 2005, Swiss voters were asked to decide two issues, and they approved both of them. With 54.6 percent of the vote, Switzerland joined the Dublin and Schengen accords of the European Union. And 58 percent of voters granted same-sex couples the right to register their partnership. Both decisions are relevant to the topic at hand. Yet before addressing LGBT refugees in Switzerland, some background is necessary in order to understand the Swiss context. We will first look at asylum in Switzerland in general terms, followed by a brief discussion of the changes brought about by the Dublin agreement. Then, we will touch on the Swiss attitudes toward LGBT people regardless of their origin, before finally turning to the immediate plight of queer refugees, and the means to support them.

In Europe but not necessarily of it: Switzerland, queer refugees, and Amnesty International

Related articles

• Why did Switzerland ignore thousands of Iraqi asylum requests? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Visualising asylum disparities in the European Union (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: powerful new Swiss film looks at failed asylum seekers - and what happens after return (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Why did Switzerland ignore thousands of Iraqi asylum requests?

Simonetta Sommaruga image via Wikipedia

Source: swissinfo.ch

Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga has opened an enquiry into why thousands of Iraqi asylum requests were ignored by the Federal Migration Office over the years.

Between 2006 and 2008 Swiss embassies in Syria and Egypt received some 7,000-10,000 requests for asylum from Iraqi citizens, which were put to one side by the migration office.

The enquiry will try to establish whether this violated the law and also how to best deal with the outstanding applications.

The report, entrusted to former federal judge Michel Féraud, is expected by the end of the year.

31 August Sommaruga announced that the head of the Federal Migration Office, Alard du Bois-Reymond, had been dismissed. No reasons were given and Sommaruga would neither confirm nor deny that this was in connection with the Iraqi asylum enquiry.

Du Bois-Reymond, who had been in the post since January 2010, will be replaced at the beginning of November by his deputy, Mario Gattiker, who has been at the migration office since 2001.

Related articles

• Video: powerful new Swiss film looks at failed asylum seekers - and what happens after return (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Swiss Minister: 'hardline policies do not 'deter' asylum seekers (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Video: powerful new Swiss film looks at failed asylum seekers - and what happens after return

Source: thefinette31





Source: swissinfo.ch

By Stefania Summermatter

Swiss filmmaker Fernand Melgar has returned to the Locarno Film Festival with a powerful documentary on forced deportations of failed asylum seekers.

Melgar’s work, shot at the Frambois detention centre in Geneva, is up for the Golden Leopard in the International Competition. He tells swissinfo.ch about why he was motivated to make the film.

Every year thousands of illegal aliens, for the most part clandestine immigrants and asylum seekers, are held at one of 28 detention centres in Switzerland prior to being expelled from the country.

Vol spécial (Special flight), offers a glimpse inside the centre at Frambois. Through the stories of six migrants, Melgar reveals the months of waiting, hope and despair. He highlights humanity of the guards, but also the inhumanity of forcible deportation.

The documentary’s screening follows a period of controversy over deportation flights. In March 2010 a Nigerian man died during an expatriation attempt, leading to the temporary suspension of all such flights. They resumed for Africa, with the exception of Nigeria, in July 2010. A first flight for Nigeria took off last month, but was not without incident as two Nigerians resisted boarding.

Melgar previously won a Golden Leopard in the 'Filmmakers of the Present' section of Locarno for La Forteresse (The Fortress) in 2008, which tells the story of those going through the asylum process at the Registration Centre in Vallorbe in western Switzerland. His current work is one of three Swiss films in competition for the top prize at Locarno.

Read more »

Video: 'Getting Out': five LGBT refugee stories from Africa

'Getting Out' was produced by the Refugee Law Project in collaboration with the Ugandan Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law. It is a documentary following the stories of five individuals seeking to escape persecution on the grounds of their gender or sexual preference. Shot in Uganda, South Africa, Geneva and London, the film is 60 minutes and is viewable in two parts.


"Getting Out" Part. 1 from Edward Mundy on Vimeo.


Getting out (Part 2) from Edward Mundy on Vimeo.

In Switzerland, asylum seekers being housed in emergency, windowless bunkers

Asylum seekers in Lausanne bunker

Source: swissinfo.ch

By Sophie Douez

Under pressure from federal authorities to find housing for increasing numbers of asylum claimants, cantons are turning to emergency bunkers as a solution.

The issue came to a head this week with police in Neuchâtel forced to intervene when members of a group of 31 claimants refused to move from hostel housing to a bunker which had been opened to make way for new arrivals.

“It’s true that it’s a civil protection measure which by definition does not have windows, which has living conditions which are more about survival,” head of the Neuchâtel migration service Serge Gamma told swissinfo.ch.

“It’s the only place we could make available given the urgency of the situation.”

Federal authorities have estimated that events in North Africa and the Middle East could lead to an additional 200 to 700 claims being lodged in Switzerland per month. They have asked the cantons to be ready to receive up to 5,000 extra asylum seekers.

But statistics for April show the number of registered claims declined 20 per cent compared with March.

Read more »

Swiss court upholds ruling to deport gay Iranian convicted drug dealer

Image by Stewf via Flickr

Source: swissinfo.ch

The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has rejected the appeal of a convicted heroin trafficker against deportation to his native Iran.

The 35-year-old gay Iranian, who is in a civil partnership with a Swiss man, said he feared for his life if he were to be returned since many homosexuals were sentenced to death in Iran.

However, the court ruled on Monday that the fears were not justified even if homosexuality is illegal in Iran and Sharia law provides for the application of the death penalty.

The court stressed that homosexuality is not unusual in Iran, and that it was tolerated as long as it remained hidden, and that it would be wrong to assume that gay Iranians are systematically discriminated against.

It was also noted that the Iranian had made several trips to Iran including two trips with his partner without being subject to any discrimination.

The court concluded that there was no reason to believe that the claimant would be exposed to any risks as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits torture, punishment and degrading or humiliating treatment.

The Iranian was given a two-year suspended sentence for drugs trafficking, after being found in possession of 70 grams of heroin by a court in Bern. This meant the loss of his right to renew his Swiss residency permit.

Related articles

• Major new report documents situation of Iranian LGBT, in Iran and in exile (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Iran Hanged 10 Drug Smugglers, The Eu Called for The Abolition of The Death Penalty (socyberty.com)
• Judge: Iranian activists in UK cannot be deported (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Swiss Minister: 'hardline policies do not 'deter' asylum seekers

Image via Wikipedia

Source: swissinfo.ch

Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga believes Switzerland’s asylum policy over the past 20 years has neither solved problems nor boosted public confidence.

In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper, Sommaruga spoke of a “crisis of credibility”.

“Over the past 20 years the public has been fooled into thinking that multiple tightenings of the asylum law have made Switzerland unattractive for asylum seekers. But these revisions have neither solved the problems nor generated confidence among the public,” she said.

Sommaruga also addressed the issue of foreign workers. When asked about the dilemma that foreign workers were necessary in Switzerland but they also made local Swiss feel uncomfortable, she admitted this was “basically unsolvable”.

“I believe that for the moment we simply have to put up with this tension,” she said. “Look at the catering industry or care sector – without foreigners it doesn’t work.”

Better integration was necessary, she said, specifically concerning job chances.

She added that the government was keeping an eye on the events in Egypt, which she said could potentially trigger floods of refugees.

“The routes are short between us and North Africa over the Mediterranean and Italy via Turkey,” she said.

Related articles

• In Switzerland, a new campaign addresses asylum seeker destitution (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Tony Blair and asylum: The narratives, conceptualisations, restrictionism (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In Switzerland, a new campaign addresses asylum seeker destitution

Source: Ecre

Four Swiss organisations – Amnesty International (AI), l'Organisation suisse d'aide aux réfugiés (OSAR), l'Observatoire du droit d'asile et des étrangers (ODAE) and Solidarités sans frontières – have launched a campaign criticising the Swiss “emergency assistance” system for asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected. Since 2008, this group cannot benefit from ordinary social assistance and are only entitled to “emergency assistance” which, according to the organisations, forces around 5,800 people to live in a precarious situation, in violation of their fundamental rights and human dignity.

The system was intended to have a dissuasive effect on people attempting to seek protection in Switzerland and also to convince people who have received a negative decision on their applications to leave the country. However, only 12-17% of the persons concerned by the measure have actually left the country.

Simonetta Sommaruga, the newly-appointed Minister for Justice, has recently criticised the current Swiss asylum system, considering that there has been no improvement over the past 20 years, and that there was a “crisis of credibility” among the public. The four organisations expressed their hope that Mrs Sommaruga will be sensitive to the issue of “emergency assistance”. The Campaign will include awareness-raising activities among the Swiss population and a petition addressed to Minister Sommaruga.

Related articles

• Des ONG demandent la réforme de l'aide d'urgence (tsr.ch)
• Refugees struggle to get by in Rome (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• As Europe freezes, so do many asylum seekers (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

The human cost of European slashed refugee budgets and accelerated removals

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Source: Institute of Race Relations

Research from the Institute of Race Relations, including a review of 38 asylum and immigration related deaths in Europe over 18 months, shows the human cost of EU moves to slash budgets for refugee integration and accelerate the pace of removals - thereby undermining international conventions.In its report, Accelerated removals: a study of the human cost of EU deportation policies, 2009-2010, the IRR has documented the deaths of 28 men, 8 women and 2 boys, mostly asylum seekers, from January 2009 to 30 June 2010, in ten EU countries, Norway and Switzerland.

The vast majority of the deaths were either suicides linked to fear of deportation, or deaths that could have been avoided if asylum seekers were afforded proper medical care. Cuts to legal aid budgets and reduced access to justice, the targeting of specific nationals for charter-flight removals, overcrowding and appalling conditions in detention centres where hunger strikes are rife, are also placing individuals under abnormal levels of stress that are deleterious to health and undermine the will to live.

Unaccompanied children

Read more »

What if a Russian gay leader was kidnapped + nobody protested?

Image via Wikipedia 

By Paul Canning

Two weeks ago the leader of Russia's embattled LGBT movement Nikolai Alekseev was kidnapped for three days by unknown forces. He was interrogated and, he thinks, drugged and then dumped 100km from Moscow after being picked up with the connivance of Swiss Air Lines whilst trying to board a plane to Geneva.

Since then the French Foreign Minister and the German government have formally asked questions and, as Alekseev has requested, asked for an inquiry by the Russian government.

But other government's have either said nothing or refused to protest to the Russians. The latest being Canada. Xtra! documents how the Canadian government felt able to protest Uganda's 'Kill the gays' bill but not Alekseev's kidnap. Instead they are 'monitoring'.

LGBT Asylum News is aware that requests for a protest have gone from MPs to the British and Australian Foreign Ministries, whose Moscow embassies are also presumably 'monitoring' (the events have been big news there) but preferring to say nothing publicly.

The lack of interest in protesting Russia's repression of LGBT is not new. In June an appeal went out from Russian activists to support Moscow's gay pride march, banned and violently stopped for several years by the homophobic former Mayor, to European embassies. The EU and particular government's, such as the UK, has been proudly flying the rainbow flag in those Eastern European EU members like Bulgaria and Latvia who have either banned pride marches or otherwise not supported LGBT rights. But not in Moscow, no support shown there.

The United States too has shown no support. Several US Congresspeople, LGBT Asylum News is aware, have asked the State Department to take an interest but it hasn't made any statement. This, again, follows a pattern. Last year Hillary Clinton visited Moscow to unveil a statue of the gay American poet Walt Whitman. Activists appealed to her to use the opportunity to support LGBT rights in Russia. She didn't.

The organizers of St Petersburg Pride asked the US Consulate in St. Petersburg in July to help in advance of St. Petersburg Pride by screening a documentary, Beyond Gay, the Politics of Pride, which features the differences between several Gay Prides around the world, like New York, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Warsaw. The Americans refused, and the excuse was: “We cannot show a Canadian documentary in the US consulate.”

Clinton has spoken to US audiences about her support for LGBT rights internationally, as have EU Foreign Ministers - apparently this solidarity doesn't include Russia.

Interviewed by Doug Ireland in August, Alekseev said that Russia prior to 9/11 was often criticised internationally for human rights abuses but after, not so much: "You know, if tomorrow the Kremlin starts to put us in jail, do you think someone will care? Does someone care when human rights activists are arrested? Not anymore. They used to care," said Alekseev.

"Europeans have experienced the collateral damages of the fight between Russia and Ukraine on the issue of imported natural gas. When Russia switched off the gas to Ukraine, Western Europe started to be cold as well. The Europeans understand that they have limited margin of maneuver with Russia... Human rights activists in Russia are the hostages of this geopolitics. And I am including us in that pot."

Despite the lack of international support, Russia's gay activists fight on, arrests after arrests after arrests, and have just scored a significant victory.

For the first time the Moscow government has approved a protest. It's of Swiss Air Lines at Moscow's airport, calling for a boycott of the company which allowed Alekseev to be carted off by Russian security agents despite him past Russian customs at the terminal and legally in international territory. They also asked for a fee when he returned to retrieve the bag he thought stowed on the plane. He wants compensation and an apology.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Watch: Video of Arrest of Nikolai Alekseev, Gay Activists in Moscow (towleroad.com)
• Nikolai Alekseev Today Asking for International Protests (pinkbananaworld.com)
• How (Not) To Stop Gay Rights: Russian Activist Kidnapped (bilerico.com)

Refugees deported by Europe “transported like packages”

Staged deportation as presented by a human rights groups

Source: swissinfo.ch

By Ariane Gigon (Translated from French by Thomas Stephens)

Forced deportation flights of rejected asylum seekers will start again this month, having been suspended following the death of a Nigerian in March.

However, the presence of extra medical supervision on board has generated a controversy.

“Transported like packages,” is how human rights organisations describe deportations of people who have had applications for asylum turned down and who do not want to return home voluntarily.

On these flights, men – women are never involved – are bound in such a way that they can neither stand up nor stretch out their arms in front of them.

“There have been deaths in Britain, France and all countries that deport people in this way,” said Lilo König, co-founder of Zurich’s Augenauf human rights organisation.

On March 17, Switzerland witnessed its third death under these conditions. Alex K., a 29-year-old convicted drug dealer, suffered a heart attack and died at Zurich airport.

Read more »

Shock! Cameroon government denies persecution of LGBT, facts prove otherwise

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

In reaction sought by the BBC to Wednesday's Supreme Court decision on LGBT asylum, which involved an Iranian and a Cameroonian, Cameroon's Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma told them that:

"Homosexuality is forbidden by the law, there is no doubt. But what I can emphasise is the fact that no homosexual is persecuted in Cameroon."

"Do you think he ('HT', the applicant in the Supreme Court case) is the only gay person in Cameroon?"

HT certainly is not, but a cursory trawl just through the LGBT Asylum News archives reveals a stack of documented evidence of persecution of LGBT in Cameroon, both by the State as well as the general public - who were both involved in the beating and attempted penis-removal of HT which lies at the core of his asylum case.

In 2005 Ndiki Samuel Eleazard rang into a provincial radio show and said he was gay. Him and his boyfriend Xavier were "dragged to the local constabulary and well beaten". Ndiki sought asylum in France.

In 2008 Anatole Zali was threatened by police and the subject of an arrest warrant. He sought sanctuary in Switzerland. Amnesty International told Swiss authorities that:

Those detained or imprisoned in Cameroon because of their alleged sexual orientation have been targeted for ill-treatment in custody.

They are often subjected to verbal and physical threats from other inmates.

In 2009 the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on African journalists to beware the dangers of prejudice and discrimination facing gay people after a report that a journalists' group in Cameroon has put at risk colleagues by making public accusations of homosexuality in a country where the practice is forbidden by law.

AFP reported last year that:

For gay men in Cameroon, where homosexual acts are punishable by five years in prison, it is still safest to live in hiding. Especially since the persecution of gays has intensified, including with the publication of a top 50 list of "suspected gays" and regular arrests. But some are fighting for the right to live a normal life.

Last year IPS News interviewed Alice Nkom, a rare Cameroonian lawyer who defends gay clients. She said:

Every day I hear about extortion here and there ... at any given time they can be subjected to arrest or blackmail - even when the law does not provide the police with the power to do so.

There is a criminal procedure code which is continuously violated when it comes to gay and lesbian people. The code does not provide the prosecutor the power to arraign somebody unless the person was caught in flagrante delicto (caught in the act).

A police officer does not have the right to come to your house or to bars to arrest you for homosexuality. But what happens is that people are just thought to be gay... (which) catches the attention of greedy police officers who are looking for someone to blackmail.

In one case, nine people were charged. The judge wanted them to go for forensic anal tests, which means that not only were they spending seven months in jail (pending the case) but the judge wanted to force them to undergo a humiliating test to show that they were actually gay. Medical doctors refused to carry out the tests.

He released two of the men for unknown reasons. The remaining seven were sentenced to seven months in jail and then released for time served. In all, they spent 12 months and 12 days in jail. How did the judge manage to find them homosexual, given that he did not get the proof he was looking for? They were found guilty on the basis of personal beliefs.

In another case two people (tried to steal from someone at whose house they were staying). He called the police. The two thieves got the idea to say the complainant wanted to sleep with them. It turned into a "gay case". The prosecutor charged all three with homosexuality and they were sentenced to six months.

Asked by IPSNews "How do your peers respond to your work?" Nkom said:

Many of them are very homophobic. Others are indifferent. I receive little support.

In April this year an Australian and two Cameroonians were arrested for homosexuality in the lobby of an international hotel in the capital, Douala, after being 'denounced' and only freed thanks to the efforts of Nkom.

Swiss group aims to support gay migrants

Source: HAB, the homosexual task force of Berne

Same-sex relationships have reached widespread legal and social recognition in Switzerland in the last 30 years. Nevertheless, for homo-, bi- or transsexual migrants, “secondos” or “secondas” the situation has not improved very much yet.

They not only have to fight for their integration and against discrimination and racism, but still have to to hide themselves within their own ethnic community and have to fear rejection or even physical violence. Therefore, HAB, the homosexual task force of Berne, has decided to address the subject of homophobia and migrants with a poster-campaign in public transport for the International Day Against Homophobia (may 17th, 2010).

Besides that, we offer assistance and are planning different other activities within this subject.

• «Please help me, I’m a man in love with a man / I’m a woman in love with a woman!»
• If it is difficult for you to cope with these feelings, if you have questions concerning same-sex relationships or if you fear difficulties, please refer to the link “counseling section”
• «I would like to meet other gay migrants or Secondos/Secondas. I would like to help organising meeting opportunities.»

Contrary to the UK, Germany or France, Switzerland has no specific LGBT groups or resources for migrants. If you would like to help us to change this, please contact:

• gaymigs@ha-bern.ch 
• Gaymigs Zürich

Two gay Iranians secure Swiss, Canadian refuge

Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR) reports that two gay Iranians have been accepted as refugees.

They are:

• Nima who is 30 years-old and left Iran for Switzerland, and:
• Ardalan who is 43 years-old and left Iran for Canada

Switzerland: LGBT asylum seekers receive legal knock-back

Image by twicepix via Flickr

Source: swissinfo.ch

By Thomas Stephens

A motion to give legal recognition to people who are persecuted because of their sexual orientation has been roundly rejected by the House of Representatives.

The government argued that homosexuals were adequately protected by current asylum laws as members of a “particular social group”, reflecting the view of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights(UNHCR).

Wednesday’s defeat – by 125 votes to 64 – came a day after Amnesty International handed in a petition to the Federal Chancellery calling for the Swiss legal definition of “refugee” to be widened.

“We really regret that this has been rejected because it would have been a better solution for persecuted people,” Denise Graf, refugee coordinator at the human rights organisation’s Swiss section, told swissinfo.ch.

“Currently asylum law says authorities have to consider the special situation of women. We said they should have to consider the special situation of women and people who have been persecuted for their sexual orientation or sexual identity.”

Amnesty pointed out that homosexual acts are still illegal in 85 countries – predominantly Muslim and African ones, although also several parts of the United States – and punishable by death in Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.

In many other parts of the world people sit in prison because of their actual or presumed sexuality, it added. Homosexuality was legalised in Switzerland in 1942.

Amnesty said that without legal recognition of this specific form of persecution, there was a danger that Switzerland would continue to turn away asylum seekers – even if they would then face prison, torture and death.

Graf said a few cases existed of people being granted asylum in Switzerland because of their sexual orientation, “but hardly any”.

“A study published in the specialist journal Asylum in 2007 said that between 1993 and 2005… out of 90 cases, four got asylum,” she said.

Increasing claims

The persecution of people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity is not a new phenomenon, the UNHCR noted in a report published in November 2008. But it acknowledged that only recently had a growing number of asylum claims been made by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

The paper concluded that “international and national developments in sexual orientation case law clearly show that LGBT persons may be recognised as a ‘particular social group’ and, as such, are entitled to protection under the 1951 Convention”.

Non-governmental organisations have never been so vocal on this issue. In 2009, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled “They Want Us Exterminated; Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq”.

“Not enough awareness”

The cabinet had recommended that Wednesday’s motion, put forward by Green parliamentarian Katharina Prelicz-Huber, be rejected, arguing that the current laws were adequate.

“They say that the refugee definition covers the possibility to grant asylum for people who belong to a special social group. This is also the position of the UNHCR,” Graf said.

For example in February the government said it would admit two Guantanamo prisoners – Uighurs from the Chinese province of Xinjiang – on humanitarian grounds. Switzerland had already accepted one Guantanamo inmate, an Uzbek who arrived in January and is now residing in Geneva.

“But we believe there isn’t enough awareness inside the Migration Office or the appeal instance inside the Federal Administrative Court. We are convinced that introducing this explicitly into law would really result in more training and awareness about the situation of homosexuals,” she said.

Gay wave?

The centre-left Social Democratic Party was the only one of Switzerland’s four main parties to back the motion.

“To be able to live one’s sexual orientation free of danger is a fundamental part of personal freedom and therefore a justified reason for asylum,” said Margret Kiener Nellen, co-president of the party’s commission for sexual orientation and identity.

But Hans Fehr from the rightwing Swiss People’s Party feared there was “massive potential for abuse” as a result of a lack of controls.

“Hundreds of thousands of people could stream into the country and Switzerland would turn into an island of allegedly persecuted homosexuals,” he said.

“That’s ridiculous!” Graf told swissinfo.ch. “Every case is examined individually and this wouldn’t change if we amended the law. There was a change for women and we didn’t have hundreds and thousands of women looking for asylum in Switzerland.”

Legal struggle

But it’s not only states that persecute sexual minorities – many asylum seekers are often forced to flee by their families and communities.

Graf cited the example of Christian (not his real name), who had spent months in hiding in Cameroon after being arrested in a gay bar. He was hounded out of the country by his family and in 2005 was arrested at Zurich airport for having false papers. He applied for asylum in Switzerland – without disclosing he was gay – and was rejected.

It was only after he spoke to someone from the Swiss Red Cross that he admitted the real reason for his application. In April 2009, after a four-year legal struggle, he was granted asylum in Switzerland.

IGLHRC - UN, CEDAW Silent on LBT Women in Concluding Observations

Image by CWGL via Flickr

Source: International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

IGLHRC is disappointed that the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee) failed to reference issues relating to sexual orientation or gender identity in its Concluding Observations for the 44th session. The countries reviewed in the 44th session were Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Denmark, Guinea Bissau, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Japan, Liberia, Spain, Switzerland, Timor Leste, and Tuvalu.

The Committee's silence is especially striking in the cases of Azerbaijan, Japan, and Switzerland. Shadow reports focusing exclusively on the human rights violations of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LBT) women were submitted by NGOs from these countries, and activists traveled to New York to attend the CEDAW session and speak at NGO meetings on the violations faced by LBT women.

CEDAW's Concluding Observations constitute the Committee's final recommendations to governments about how to further equality for all women. Where women as a group face discrimination or violence, the situation is often even worse for LBT women. Devaluing women on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity devalues all women, just as adverse treatment of women as a group is particularly detrimental to women who are LBT.

The CEDAW Committee, as well as other human rights treaty bodies including the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Committee Against Torture (CAT), and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has recognized sexual orientation as a prohibited basis for discrimination. On at least one occasion the CEDAW Committee has also recommended legislation that protects people from discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Other treaty bodies including CESR and CATR have explicitly included gender identity among the prohibited grounds for discrimination.

The following comparisons reiterate some of the concerns that could have been included within the framework of the Concluding Observations. Although the groups’ recommendations were ultimately omitted from the session’s Concluding Observations, they still provide a useful blueprint for governments to act as they fulfill their obligations under CEDAW.

All the shadow reports and Concluding Observations from CEDAW’s 44th Session can be downloaded here.

Azerbaijan:

The Gender and Development Social Union’s shadow report explicitly highlighted a number of areas where LBT women are particularly at risk in Azerbaijan:

• Prejudice in media and society, including hate speech and hate crimes,
• Domestic violence and forced marriage
• Discrimination in employment, health care, and the legal system.

The shadow report specifically recommended that Azerbaijan amend legislation to address family violence against LBT people, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, promote education and tolerance, and adopt mechanisms to recognize transgender people in the legal and medical fields.

Azerbaijan should take LBT people into consideration as they implement these recommendations and recognize how LBT people are especially disadvantaged by these forms of inequality identified by the Committee:

• Stereotypical attitudes toward women and portrayals in the media,
• Domestic violence and violence against women, and
• Discrimination in education, employment, and health care.

Japan:

GayJapanNews’ shadow report explicitly highlighted a number of areas where LBT women are particularly at risk in Japan:

• Barriers to changing legal gender that limit access to health care,
information, and venues for expression,
• Discrimination in health care, education, employment, housing, social security, and asylum,
• Cultural expectations and pressure to marry, and
• Domestic violence and violence against women.

The shadow report specifically recommended that Japan adopt anti-discrimination legislation and establish an independent national institution to protect the human rights of LBT people.

Japan should take LBT people into consideration as they implement these recommendations and recognize how LBT people are especially disadvantaged by these forms of inequality identified by the Committee:

• Unequal provisions for inheritance, custody, adoption, and family law,
• Discrimination,
• Stereotypical attitudes toward women and portrayals in the media, and
• Domestic violence and violence against women.

Switzerland:

The shadow report by Fondation Agnodice, Lesbenorganisation Schweiz LOS, Lestime, Homosexuelle Arbeitsgruppen Zurich HAZ, and WyberNet explicitly highlighted a number of areas where LBT women are particularly at risk in Switzerland:

• Discrimination,
• Disparities in health and well-being,
• Barriers to changing legal gender and name across cantons, and
• Lack of recognition in family law.

The shadow reports specifically recommended that Switzerland adopt federal legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, permit LBT couples and individuals to adopt, receive fertility treatment, and undergo artificial insemination, include LBT people in data collection, medical training, outreach and prevention programs, and improvements in care, and allowing transgender people to change their legal name and gender without preconditions.

Switzerland should take LBT people into consideration as they implement these recommendations, and to recognize how LBT people are especially disadvantaged by these forms of inequality identified by the Committee:

• Employment and economic disempowerment,
• Stereotypes,
• Domestic violence and violence against women,
• Lack of protections for rural women, and
• Lack of protections for women in de facto relationships if these dissolve.

Moving Forward on LBT Issues:

Given the considerable overlap between the problems raised by LBT groups and those acknowledged by the Committee, there is a clear justification for LBT inclusion in these reports. The Committee might consider, at minimum, highlighting the risks that LBT people face by including them in their concern for and recommendations on “vulnerable groups of women” (CEDAW, 44th Sess., Concluding Observations: Azerbaijan paras. 35-38; Japan paras. 53-54; Switzerland paras. 43-44).

In the Concluding Observations of the 44th session of CEDAW, there was no discussion of a host of other unique problems faced by individuals who are LBT–invisibility and marginalization in law and society, discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and stark disparities in physical and psychological well-being–which merit swift and specific attention.

The concerns of LBT people are unique enough to merit explicit consideration, but they are also inextricably related to the issues being raised by a broader community of women. Given the similarities between the issues that different groups of women face, the concerns of LBT women can–and should–be incorporated into the framework of recommendations by the Committee.

The 45th CEDAW session will be held January 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland. The Committee will review the human rights records of Botswana, Egypt, Malawi, Netherlands, Panama, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Civil society groups from those countries are encouraged to submit shadow reports on LBT issues.

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For more information see IGLHRC’s July 2009 publication, Equal and Indivisible: Crafting Inclusive Shadow Reports for CEDAW — a handbook for activists who want to write shadow/alternative reports for CEDAW incorporating human rights issues related to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Download the handbook here.

Help an Iranian Gay Asylum Seeker in Switzerland

By Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, IRanian Queer Railroad (IRQR)

Earlier today, we received a message from Switzerland asking us to call the number of a public phone booth in order to talk with an Iranian refugee who does not have any money and needs our support. His name is Ali and he’s a 33 year-old man from Qom, the central city of Islamic clergies in Iran. He arrived in Switzerland just yesterday and claimed refugee status based on the well-established persecution of Iranians who have a homosexual orientation. Ali needs our urgent support.

I spoke to Ali for about 20 minutes to find out more about his situation and why he was forced to flee. When he was only one year old, his parents left him on a street and he grew up in a public orphanage. When he was 15, Ali realized his true sexual orientation following a relationship with one of his friends at the orphanage. It was very difficult for him to live in Qom as a gay man because he felt guilty due to his “immoral behavior”, according to Islamic law, and he feared persecution and death (the proscribed punishment).

Ali’s situation became worse when he was arrested by the authorities after they received a report from one of his neighbors who had spied on him while he was engaged in sex, with his boyfriend, in his private home. He was eventually released from detention centre on bail and Ali was asked to appear before the moral court of Qom.

“I was scared to death because I knew they would kill me. Not only did they already have witnesses but also, they kept my boyfriend in Langroud prison in Qom where he confessed that he had sex with me. He might have confessed due to their torture because I know what they do,” Ali said in our phone conversation.

He fled Iran for Switzerland with the help of a passer-by in order to save his own life and have his basic rights protected. Ali told me that: “I can never go back to Iran because I do not want to be executed. I did not do anything wrong and I wonder how come I do not have the right to privacy?”

He is in very difficult financial situation and needs our help. It is challenging to keep in touch with him because he tells us: “I do not have any money to go to the internet café because it costs 7 Swiss Franks per hour (about $6.50 USD). I only had 150 Euros on me (approx. $214 USD) when I arrived here. I needed to use this for my shelter and food.” We encouraged Ali to fill out the IRQR’s online refugee application on our website.

We immediately sent him $200 so he could buy food and other daily expenses during his first few days in exile. But Ali needs further financial support so we turn to all of our supporters and sponsors who wish to help him out in these very difficult circumstances. You can make a donation through our secure PayPal at www.irqr.net

In last two weeks, the IRQR has spent $795 in financial assistance to help refugees in Turkey and in Europe. Mohsen is one of them. He spent a few nights sleeping outside, next to the Mediterranean Sea in Cyprus -- not at all in a romantic setting! Homeless, he was forced into this situation when he could not pay his rent. The IRQR is working with more than 200 refugees and providing financial support as well as legal support so they can be granted refugee status and live freely.

The IRQR’s financial resources are very limited. Without generous support from you and others, our ability to help refugees is limited. We need your donations to continue helping Iranian refugees, especially Ali in Switzerland who is in urgent need.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your donation. All amounts are welcome, even small donations of whatever you can afford.



---------------------------------------
Arsham Parsi
Executive Director
IRanian Queer Railroad - IRQR
www . irqr . net
info @ irqr . net
(001) 416-548-4171
414-477 Sherbourne St.
Toronto, On - M4X 1K5

Swiss may deport gay teen to Cameroon

Image via Wikipedia

Source: PinkNews.co.uk

Switzerland is due to return a Cameroonian teenager to his home country, where he could face imprisonment and physical punishment.

Anatole Zali arrived in Switzerland from Cameroon on 3rd February 2008 and claimed asylum on the grounds that he had been threatened because he is gay.

In Cameroon, Zali, who is 18, claims to have received threats from the police, where he stayed with his cousin for protection.

His cousin was later arrested by the police on suspicion of being gay, and an arrest warrant on the same grounds was issued for Mr Zali.

In the wake of the warrant, he fled to Switzerland to escape arrest.

His claim for asylum was rejected on 14th February 2008 and under current asylum legislation in Switzerland asylum-seekers are not granted state-funded legal assistance.

Consequently, Anatole Zali had to submit his own appeal against the rejection of his asylum claim without legal representation.

He was given five days from the initial decision in which to submit his appeal, in accordance with Swiss asylum procedures. His appeal was rejected.

Amnesty International argue that Switzerland has obligations under international law, including the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, to give asylum-seekers access to a fair and satisfactory asylum procedure, and not to return anyone to a country where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations.

Those detained or imprisoned in Cameroon because of their alleged sexual orientation have been targeted for ill-treatment in custody.

They are often subjected to verbal and physical threats from other inmates.

Organisers of the campaign to stop Mr Zali’s deportation have suggested a number of actions that could help him to stay in Switzerland.

These include urging the Swiss authorities not to forcibly return Anatole Zali to Cameroon, as he is likely to face arrest because of his sexual orientation.

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Somalia: a woman's woman

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Behind the mask

By Afdhere Jama

By the time I came to America at the age of seventeen, I had met at least a dozen queer Somalis. All of them men. I had yet to meet a lesbian. The word used for lesbian in Somali, qaniisad, is the feminine version of the word qaniis or a gay male. A few years ago, I finally met a qaniisad. Her name was Rahma Shire and she visiting from Switzerland. She was a 25-year-old medical student and nin-nin or masculine in terms of behavior but at the same time possessed lots of feminine qualities like long hair, pretty nails and fabulous traditional Somali dressing known as dirac[see-through kind of a dress that goes all the way below the feet which then women grab with one hand and hold onto while walking, part of its xarago or beauty.)

Being masculine, Shire had her dirac supported by her goorgarad or a traditional inner skirt that is usually silky and a different color than the dirac, accompanied by same color rejistiin or a bra. Instead of holding it, she just tucked part of the front under the goorgarad. When I was in Somalia, I used to see a lot of women do that. Then I asked Shire whether that was a clue to their sexuality or not. "No, honey," she said. "It is actually common for women to do this when they want to use both of their hands. I'm just a dyke and can't drag a dress all day."

In Somali culture, women encourage themselves to drag it because xarago xanuunkeed or "beauty has its pains." They use the same phrase when justifying wearing painfully tall high-heels. Shire, on the other hand, is wearing medium-high open shoes and actually seems to be comfortable. "Why bother? Shoes are just shoes. They are meant to complement your clothes not to put you in pain." I couldn't help but agree with her.

Shire is beautiful, indeed, but her beauty gets even better when she talks about queer issues. She is passionate about gay rights, especially since she believes one of an executed lesbian couple in Somalia was her ex-. A few years ago, story broke out to the international community about a lesbian couple being executed in a northeastern part of Somalia that calls itself "Puntland." Shire was scared for the lesbians, but then she received a word from Somalia that one of the victims was her ex-girlfriend. "A lesbian called me in the middle of the night," says Shire. "It was a horrible news because my ex-girlfriend and I did not break up because the relationship died but because of the war. We got separated and then her family married her off to some guy."

Shire tried to find out everything she could about the executed couple, but the self-declared state denied it. She says she contacted at least three different people in that region and they confirmed the story was actually true. The women, who belonged to the Majeerteen and Isaaq clans, were executed "discreetly." Shire, an Isaaq herself who was coincidentally in a relationship with a Majeerteen lady at the time, says the story seemed to parallel her life more than she imagined. It even seemed to be repeating itself when her girlfriend decided to go back to Bosaaso(same region) to take care of her ill mother. "She was my former girlfriend and she was dead now because she was a lesbian," says Shire. "Then my current girlfriend decided she wanted to go to the same area. I was really angry and scared."

Shire came to Europe in 1991 when she got into Italy illegally. A lot of Somali women were doing the same thing. Italy was "big" because you could become boyaaso or a maid/care-giver. Then she went into Switzerland and filed for asylum as a refugee. "Coming to Switzerland was the best thing I did," says Shire, who moved to a region in Switzerland that speaks French. "I could go to school and envision a good life." That is exactly what she did. She went to school and now she is almost done with her medical school. What is she going to be? "A gynecologist," she says. "I want to help Somali girls understand their bodies and deal with some of the things they are faced with."

She is a fierce feminist. She goes all around Switzerland and teaches Somali women sobering facts about a very extreme female circumcision known to Somalis as gudniinka fircooniga and known to others as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM.) "The education on this horrible practice is very low within the Somali community," she says in front of dozens of Somali women in a community gathering. "Women, especially, need to empower themselves by studying the cases. There is enough information on this out there for anyone who is interested. Please, for the sake of your daughters, stop this practice."

Like most Somali girls, she suffered the practice, which most Somalis do in order to keep the girls' sexuality "under control." Somalis, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, say by "cutting down the pleasure the girls will not sin by having premarital sex," says Shire. And because of that, many of these victims of FGM end up hating their bodies, and men, coincidently.

Fortunately, Shire is not one of them. In a recent conversation with her for Huriyah magazine, when asked what she thinks of her vagina, she said: "I love my vagina. When the civil war started, I would have gone crazy without satisfying myself, after my girlfriend left me and moved with her family to the other side of the country. It saved my life, literally." I can't help but be proud of her, both as a Somali and queer.

So, what is she doing now? "Enjoying my life with my girlfriend of eight years," she says. "I'm looking forward to becoming a doctor, as well. My life is in good shape. I didn't write it this way but I absolutely love it. My girlfriend and I have made definite plans for a marriage." What a sweet life.

Afdhere Jama is a queer Muslim writer. He is the Editor of Huriyah magazine(http://www.huriyahmag.com ). Reach him via Afdhere@hotmail.com