Russia threatens to imprison LGBTI movement activists for considering them radical
El Russian Ministry of Justice This Friday he sent a motion to the Supreme Court to classify as extremist what he has defined as the «International Civic LGBT Movement«, something that would legally place it at the same level as Islamic State y Al Qaeda, plus neo-nazi groups and other extremist organizations. This label will make it illegal to display any symbol related to the community LGTBI in public or show support for it under prison sentences and fines.
Although there is no global “International Civic LGBT Movement» officially, the Russian authorities consider it necessary to put a stop to it because, from their point of view, said entity «promotes social hatred and the relationship between religions«, something that would violate the law against extremism of Russia. The final decision of the Supreme Court Russian will not be known until next November 30th. A representative of the ministry defended that the rights of gays and lesbians in Russia are protected by law and that the objective is only to limit «propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations«.
Harassment of the group LGTBI
The Russian Government has made this announcement just four days after presenting in Geneva, before the ONU, its annual report on the defense of human rights in the country. The Deputy Minister of Justice, Andrei Loginov, stated that his nation, in addition to “fight against Nazism", protects the LGTBI community. "Both in the Constitution and in the rest of Russian legislation, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited. The rights of LGTBI citizens are protected in Russia by relevant laws"He assured.
Harassment in Russia to the collective LGTBI has been a gradual process in the last decade, where one of its first milestones was the “law against homosexual propaganda”, approved in 2013 to prohibit talking about this minority in front of minors. However, the fence has been tightened step by step: at the end of last year the Government vetoed speaking publicly in favor of the “non-traditional relationships”, even in conversations between adults, and banned its appearance in works of art under the threat of huge fines. In July of this year, against the criteria of the World Health Organization, Russia banned the gender reassignment both physically and in official documents. Now, with the argument of defending some assumptions “traditional values", comes the illegalization of any defense of rights of this minority.
Accusations of homophobia against Russia
Despite what you say Loginov, the reality is that in September the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Russia in two cases for attacks and torture on members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community. For their part, homosexual activists have accused the justice system of not prosecuting cases of violence or discrimination against sexual minorities, although homosexuality stopped being a crime in the country in 1993.
In April 2017, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta revealed that dozens of men were kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the Republic of Chechnya because of his homosexual orientation. Besides, the ONU has accused Kremlin of passing laws that promote homophobia.
On the other hand, the countries of the European Union have begun this Friday to debate the twelfth package of sanctions against Russia. But not for the institutionalized homophobia, but for the invasion of Ukraine.
