The Canadian Supreme Court ruled today in R. v. Mabior [2012 SCC 47] that the law criminalizing failure to disclose HIV positive status to a sexual partner was constitutional only in situations where a realistic risk of transmission could be proved. In a 1998 decision, the court had ruled that failure to disclose vitiated the [...]
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), through the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), has issued a draft Human Rights Declaration. Although in many respects it reflects accepted international human rights norms, protection against sexual orientation or gender identity-based discrimination is a glaring shortfall in the instrument. Draft Article 2 of the Declaration names [...]
Making good on President Hollande’s campaign promise, France’s Socialist government has unveiled their proposed same-sex marriage and adoption law, which will make the country Europe’s ninth to take this important step. Parliament’s Socialist majority makes passage of the bill (knock on wood) virtually certain in early 2013.Also included in the draft bill are two more key [...]
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa offered wonderful words of support in July for the world’s LGBT communities. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, however, much more support is sorely needed. Here is a brief survey of recent developments in the region. Ghana. As part of its mandate to provide comprehensive recommendations to improve the country’s 1992 constitution, the [...]
Apparently the very act of sleeping while gay is offensive. This year we’ve seen three discrimination cases involving bed and breakfast establishments, each in a different country: the UK, Canada, and the US. In February an English court of appeals upheld a gay couple’s victory against the owners of Chymorvah House in Cornwall. In Bull & [...]
On July 24th, Poland’s Parliament voted to reject, without allowing a reading or debate, two bills that would have legalized civil unions in the country. Witold Pahl, member of the ruling Civic Platform party and ranking member of the parliament’s legislative committee, said both bills had (unspecified) “constitutional flaws which are not capable of being removed.” [...]