Boris Dittrich
Human Rights Watch
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Past articles by Boris:
EU Should Follow UN Guidelines on LGBT Asylum Seekers
The process of seeking asylum is difficult for anyone, but sexual and gender minorities fleeing persecution in their home countries can be particularly vulnerable, as two recent decisions by Austrian asylum officers show. → Read More
US Justice Kennedy’s Legacy on Gay Rights
President Trump is set to announce his nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who will step down this summer after 30 years on the bench. A swing vote on a deeply divided court, Kennedy sided with the majority on many troubling decisions but was also a key figure in several that advanced human rights protections, including on gay rights, abortion rights and affirmative action. → Read More
Turkey Has No Excuse to Ban Istanbul Pride March
Istanbul’s sixteenth Pride March is set to take place on July 1. But even as the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community (LGBTI) and supporters prepare to celebrate next week, it is unclear whether they will be free to do so. → Read More
Czech Government Supports Marriage Equality Bill
The Czech government expressed support on Friday for a same-sex marriage bill, sponsored by 46 members of parliament from various political parties. → Read More
Poland’s Supreme Court Stands Up for LGBT Equality
Last week, Poland’s Supreme Court ruled that an employee of a print shop could not refuse to print a banner for an LGBT organization because he did not want, in his eyes, to ‘promote’ the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. → Read More
Dutch Court Signals Need for Gender Neutral Option
A Dutch court has found that the exclusive option of ‘male’ or ‘female’ on official documents - including birth certificates - is too restrictive and should be revised, a ruling being praised by intersex and transgender activists. → Read More
Diversity on Display at Eurovision
It feels like everyone in Europe is caught up in Eurovision fever. The finals of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which has been running for 63 years and features contestants from 43 countries, will be on May 12. → Read More
Marriage Equality, Transgender Rights Might be on the Horizon in Costa Rica
On April 1, Carlos Alvarado Quesada won the presidential elections in Costa Rica in a landslide victory, 61 percent to 39 percent, with marriage equality as a central theme in the presidential campaign. → Read More
Cheap Political Trick in Barbados
After Human Rights Watch released a report on discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and buggery laws in the Eastern Caribbean, a government minister from Barbados warned against “an attempt to transpose and to transplant a foreign culture into Barbados called same-sex marriage.” → Read More
She’s Famous, From Barbados, and an LGBT Ally
“Why are we homophobic in Barbados and other countries in the Eastern Caribbean?” a popular host of a morning television show in Barbados asked me. I was on the island – and his show – to talk about a new Human Rights Watch report about discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Barbados and six other Eastern Caribbean countries. → Read More
Turkey Squelching LGBT Events
In a televised speech on November 9, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized a municipality that included slots for LGBT people on a neighbourhood committee, suggesting that the move was at odds with national values. The speech was seen as an attack on the main opposition party, which runs the town. → Read More
Global Principles Protecting LGBTI Rights Updated
The landmark document introduced at the United Nations 10 years ago and designed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, as well as other sexual minorities, was updated and strengthened yesterday. → Read More
Sheltering Albania’s Gay Youth from Virulant Homophobia
The psychologist at the LGBT youth shelter waited for me in a small side street in the city center of Tirana, Albania’s capital. “No one knows our exact address, we want to avoid arson and havoc,” she told me. → Read More
Transgender Activists Fight Historical Mental Health Diagnosis
Today, hundreds of activist groups throughout the world will gather to mark the 8th annual International Day for Trans Depathologization – a global event to raise awareness about the limitations that abusive and discriminatory medical models place on transgender people’s basic rights. → Read More
Chechnya’s Long Arm of Retaliation Against Gay Men
[[nid:309885 field_ne_alignment=center]] I recently met two Chechen gay men living as refugees in Western Europe in a bustling café. Both were in their early twenties, both looked around nervously. After we shared some pleasantries, Bula and Zelim cut to the chase. → Read More
Door Opens to Achieving Marriage Equality in Czech Republic
If it was up to the thousands who participated in last week’s Prague Pride, it’s clear the Czech Republic would be joining the growing list of countries legalizing same-sex marriage. → Read More
The Netherlands Needs to Stay Vigilant Against Homophobic Violence
A gay couple was walking home in a provincial town, holding hands. They encountered a group of youths who started shouting homophobic slurs, then beat up the two men. One man was hit with a bolt cutter in the face and lost four teeth. Both received blows and were kicked while lying on the ground. → Read More
Belarus: ‘Freedom Day’ Crackdown
(Moscow) – Authorities across Belarus arbitrarily detained at least 700 people in March 2017 in connection with peaceful protests, Human Rights Watch said today. The majority, including more than 100 journalists and 60 human rights activists, were detained in connection with peaceful protests marking Belarus’ annual Freedom Day on March 25. → Read More
Germany: Join the Move to Marriage Equality
[[nid:301029 field_ne_alignment=_none]] “Everyone is talking about preserving our values these days….Among those values is not only the protection of marriage and family, but also equal rights for different kind of relationships,” Thomas Oppermann, the head of the Socialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) in German Parliament said in an interview in Der Spiegel on March 5. → Read More
Transgender Woman Murdered in Malaysia
At about 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, a 27-year-old transgender woman, Sameera Krishnan, was brutally murdered in Kuantan city, Malaysia. Krishnan who worked in a florist shop, was attacked with a knife and received slash wounds to her hands, arm, head, and legs, and was shot up to three times. Reportedly her attackers were three masked men who had arrived in two cars. → Read More