The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced on Tuesday systematic attacks by the Lebanese authorities against the fundamental rights of the LGTBI community.
“As Lebanon plunges further into crisis, the authorities are cracking down on the rights of LGBTI people by allowing rampant violence against the community,” said HRW senior researcher on LGBTI rights, Rasha Younes. “The Lebanese authorities must immediately abandon the proposed anti-LGBTI laws and end the continued attacks on basic freedoms,” Younes added.
In August, Lebanese authorities introduced bills to criminalize consensual homosexual relations between adults, as well as upholding penalties of up to three years in prison for those “promoting homosexuality,” the US-based non-governmental organization explained.
Although consensual same-sex sexual relations are not explicitly criminalized, Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code penalizes up to one year in prison for “any sexual relation contrary to the natural order.”
A series of judicial deliberations that took place between 2007 and 2018 indicated that same-sex relations “were not illegal”, but in July nine deputies presented a proposal with a view to criminalizing it.
HRW urged Beirut to “safeguard the rights, freedom of expression, assembly, association, privacy, equality and non-discrimination of all people in Lebanon, including LGBTI people.”
HRW and other human rights organizations are monitoring attacks against the LGBTI community.
On August 23, a group of men calling themselves “soldiers of God” attacked a group of people from the LGBTI community in a Beirut bar, and the police authorities did not intervene to stop the violence.
This type of attack has already sparked protests from 18 Lebanese civil society organizations.
Source: TSF
