Country Reports

May 2014, 248 pages (23 MB)

Lesbians, bisexual women and transgender (LBT) individuals in Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka face violence and exclusion in every sphere of their lives. This violence is fueled by laws that criminalize same-sex relations and gender non-conformity and encouraged by governments who tolerate, endorse, or directly sponsor the violent clamp-down on those who do not follow prevailing norms on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

This is the main finding from research coordinated by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and conducted over a two-year period by women’s rights, sexuality rights and gender rights activists based in Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Interviews were conducted in Japanese, English, Malay, Tamil, Urdu, Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano and Sinhala. The researchers uncovered high levels of family violence perpetrated against LBT individuals as well as widespread discrimination in education, health and work sectors.

The report can be downloaded in full and in different chapters covering each of the following countries: Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka from IGLHRC's website here.

Human Rights Watch Report (2010) documenting discrimination and violence against LGBT persons in Iran.

Human Rights Watch analyzed these abuses within the context of systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian government against its citizens generally, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, invasions of privacy, mistreatment, torture of detainees, and the lack of due process and fair trial standards. HRW calls on the Iranian government to abolish the laws and other legislation under the Islamic Penal Code that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, especially those that impose the death penalty, and to cease the harassment, arrest, detention, prosecution, and conviction of LGBT persons or persons who engage in consensual same-sex conduct.

At least the report calls on other states and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to implement policies and recommendations to safeguard the rights of Iran’s vulnerable LGBT refugees and asylum seekers.

2016, 36 pages

This report is a result of a group of funders and activists driven by the wish to create a bilingual fund managed and led by West African LGBTQ activists.

Therefore, an exploratory and participatory process was undertaken to enable activists, funders, and allies to map the state of LGBTQ organizing in West Africa and gather data to help determine the appropriate initial structure and priorities of the fund.

2014, 24 pages

2016, 91 pages

A 2016 report by Human Rights Watch documents the rise in anti-LGBT rhetoric in Indonesia, as well as the threats and violent attacks on LGBT NGOs, activists, and individuals, primarily by militant Islamists. It includes 70 in-depth interviews with sexual and gender minorities and human rights activists in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, cities in South Sulawesi, cities in Sumatra, and cities in Aceh.