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At the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva, UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani made the following statement on Russia.
“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, is calling on Russian legislators to repeal and not to expand the anti LGBTI bill,”
“Mr. Türk, is deeply concerned about this latest development, which infringes even further on international human rights norms and standards,” Shamdasani said.
On Thursday, the Russian parliament – the State Duma – adopted proposals to broaden a ban on any discussion and sharing of information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their human rights.
“The proposals would expand an existing law from 2013, which been extensively examined and condemned by UN human rights experts as discriminatory, violating fundamental rights to freedom of expression, and leading to an increase in hate speech, hate crimes, and abuse, including against children,” she said.
“The legislative amendments worsen this situation by broadening the scope of the law to a blanket ban on all communications on the subject, including to adults. The proposals also target the rights of transgender people,” the spokesperson said.
“The High Commissioner appeals to legislators, who will consider the proposals in a further two readings, to reject this proposal, and to instead repeal the existing law and take urgent steps to prohibit and actively combat both discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Shamdasani said.
Türk also notes that exclusion, stigmatisation and discrimination of any group within a society is corrosive, is a root cause of violence, and has a negative impact on society as a whole, she added.
For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Geneva: Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org Jeremy Laurence + +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org or Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / marta.hurtadogomez@un.org In Nairobi Seif Magango - +254 788 343 897 / seif.magango@un.org
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