{"id":4670,"date":"2013-08-09T18:07:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T22:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/?p=4670"},"modified":"2020-10-26T04:05:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T08:05:50","slug":"leaf-stands-up-for-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.leaf.ca\/fr\/news\/leaf-stands-up-for-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"LEAF stands up for human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

SPEAK OUT AGAINST HATE, STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS:<\/strong>
AN OPEN LETTER FROM CANADIAN ORGANIZATIONS REGARDING<\/strong>
HOMOPHOBIA IN RUSSIA AND THE SOCHI 2014 WINTER OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPICS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

August 2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CALL FOR ACTION BY THE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
The Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
The Hon. John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada
The Hon. Bal Gosal, Minister of State for Sports of Canada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE & INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE
Mr. Jacques Rogge, President, International Olympic Committee
Sir Philip Craven, President, International Paralympic Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE & CANADIAN PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE
Mr. Marcel Aubut, President, Canadian Olympic Committee
Mr. Ga\u00e9tan Tardif, President, Canadian Paralympic Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOCHI 2014 MEDIA BROADCASTER
Mr. Hubert Lacroix, President, CBC\/Radio-Canada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOCHI 2014 CORPORATE SPONSORS
Mr. Muhtar Kent, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Coca-Cola Company
Mr. Thierry Breton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Atos
Mr. Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dow
Mr. Jeff Immelt, Chief Executive Officer, GE
Mr. Don Thompson, President and CEO, McDonalds
Mr. Stephen Urquhart, President and CEO, Omega
Mr. Kazuhiro Tsuga, President, Panasonic
Mr. A.G. Lafley, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, P&G
Mr. Oh-Hyun Kwan, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Samsung
Mr. Charles Scharf, Chief Executive Officer, VISA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Sirs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, the undersigned Canadian civil society organizations, call upon you to stand against the rising tide of hate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Russia, by taking the actions listed below. We are deeply troubled by the ongoing and intensifying attacks against LGBT, not least those led and encouraged by President Vladimir Putin and the Duma. These actions include, most recently, the unanimous adoption on June 29th of a federal law banning the distribution of \u201cpropaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This law means LGBT people risk prosecution simply for exercising their freedom of expression and association, as does anyone who defends the human rights of LGBT people or even mentions the existence of LGBT people in an approving fashion. Attending an LGBT event could be illegal. Challenging the harassment or assault of LGBT students in a school or declaring that it\u2019s perfectly legitimate to be LGBT could amount to \u201cgay propaganda\u201d under the wording of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals can be fined up to 100,000 rubles (about US$ 3000) for using the media or Internet to \u201cpromote non-traditional relations.\u201d Organizations can be fined up to 1 million roubles (US$ 30,000) and closed down for up to 90 days. The law authorizes police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspect of being LGBT or \u201cpro-gay\u201d and detain them for up to 15 days before expelling them from the country. Russian officials have already threatened to arrest, and actually arrested, gay tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been other recent legislative and physical assaults on LGBT people in Russia. Moscow\u2019s city government has banned Pride parades for 100 years, which the European Court of Human Rights has declared violates the European Convention on Human Rights. The city of St. Petersburg has enacted a ban on \u201chomosexual propaganda.\u00a0\u00bb Russia has banned adoption of children by any parents from nations that grant equal marriage rights to same-sex couples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest \u201canti-propaganda\u201d law is part of a much broader, ongoing attack to shut down civil society, including a series of laws that violate freedoms of assembly, association, expression and information, not just for LGBT people but for a whole range of communities and human rights defenders. Homophobia is another weapon being deployed in a broader effort to stifle a free, open, democratic society. Targeting a group to be scapegoated is aimed at weakening any civil society opposition and maintaining control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such legislative hate-mongering does indeed foment further abuses. Anti-LGBT violence is rampant and worsening in Russia. Earlier this summer, a violent mob attacked a small group of LGBT rights demonstrators in St. Petersburg. LGBT youth and adults are being assaulted and tortured by thugs who then broadcast video recordings of these attacks online. So far, Russian authorities have turned a blind eye to such hate crimes, even though some perpetrators are easily identifiable. In a recent incident, two attackers savagely beat a man, crushing his ribs, sodomizing him with beer bottles and attempting to burn him alive, after they learned of his sexual identity. They declared that it was their \u201cpatriotic duty to kill a gay man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years ago, at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, Russia joined with other countries in declaring that the protection and promotion of human rights \u201cis the first responsibility of Governments.\u201d Yet in this climate of state-sponsored hatred and violence, Russia will host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi in February 2014. The Russian government\u2019s active persecution of LGBT people flies in the face of not just international human rights law but the ostensible spirit of the Olympic Games. The international community, those countries and organizations participating in the Games, and those corporations profiting from the Games, cannot stand idly by in the face of state-sponsored terror against millions of its own people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and against their partners, families, friends and loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, in solidarity with our LGBT brothers and sisters in Russia, we call upon the Government of Canada, the International and Canadian Olympic Committees, as well as corporate sponsors and media broadcasters of the Sochi Winter Olympics, to take action as follows<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of Canada<\/strong> should:<\/p>\n\n\n\n