A RESEARCH PAPER ONINTEREST OF SAARC COUNTRIES ON LGBT RIGHTS Submitted by ; Team number 26. INTRODUCTION Human rights are equal for people with allthe social standards and social norms. Beit women, children, men, couple or LGBT. But while coming to the practical aspect of daily life people tend to”forget” the LGBTs. LGBT stands forlesbian gay bisexual and transgender and along with heterosexual, nowadays itis also called LGBTIQ where I stands for intersex persons and Q stands for peoplewho are still questioning their sexual identity.Normally, we tend to forget to cast lightupon those LGBT people who have a different sexual identity then most of us.
Thesociety must cast light upon those groups of people as well. OJECTIVEThe objective of this research paper is tobriefly know about the rights provided to the LGBT in the context of SouthAsian countries. LIMITATION1 2 This research paper is limited within thestudy of rights provided to LGBT only. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research paper is based on secondarysource of data where the research is done through The so called normal people in the society seemsto be privileged with many rights and freedom compared to the LGBTs. The LGBTare deprived with many such rights. Maybe it is not in the forms ofconstitutional remedies but inform of the society’s see through. Some lists of rights which the LGBTs aredeprived of are listed below: 1. Freedom of expression 2.
Right to family and marriage 3. Right to public assembly 4. Right to social security 5. Right to privacy 6. Right to education Human rights are the basic rights and freedombelonging to everyone from birth to death.
It doesn’t matter from where you arefrom, what you believe, what you chose to like and how you chose to like. Althoughthey can be restricted sometimes for e.g.
if a person breaks law or interest ofnational security. The basic human rights are based on values like dignity,respect, independent and equality. The SAARC countries have also been on focuswhen it comes to the legalization of LGBT rights. South Asia is home tosuccessful and impressive LGBT activist organization.
The Humsafar Trust (Mumbai) , Naz Male HealthAlliance (Karachi) ,Bandhu Society (Dhaka) , Equal ground (Colombo) and BlueDiamond Society (Napal).The SAARC countries with their legalization regardingthe LGBT rights are listed below: COUNTRY Legalization of LGBT rights Afghanistan Illegal. Penalty: long imprisonment or death penalty. Bangladesh Illegal. Penalty: 10 years to life imprisonment. Bhutan Illegal. Penalty: prison sentence up to 1 year. India Illegal under section 377 of Indian Penal code.
Penalty: Up to life imprisonment as well as torture. Maldives Illegal. Penalty: For men the punishment is banishment for 9 months to 1 year for women, house arrest for 9months to 1 year. Nepal Legal since 2007.
Also signed the UN documents. But the couple are not socially accepted in the society. Pakistan Illegal. Penalty: 2 years of life sentence. Sri Lanka Illegal.
(Decriminalization proposed) The brief views of the counties oven same sex marriage 1. Sri Lanka Sri Lanka has an authoritarian climate forsexual minorities, homosexuality is illegal under article 365 a and householdheaded by same sex couple are not eligible for any protection given to marriedcouples .The government announces that however the government has announcedthat the constitution of Sri Lanka bans discrimination based on sex and theyprovide no recognition for same sex couple. 1 Legality of same sex sexualactivity Thepolitical framework of Sri Lanka is pre dominantly being inherited from UK buthas a strong influence of Dutch and Portuguese tradition .The two main illegal arbitratorsused against homosexuals are anti-sodomy law and gender personalization law. Article 365 A Itprohibits anyone irrespective of gender from engaging in gross indecency whichis not explicitly defined although stiffer sanctions apply if one person underthe age of 16 in Jan 2016 cabinet member of Sri Lankan government banned hisprovision of same sex marriage. Same sex sexual activity is illegal and decriminalizationis proposed although anti-discrimination law in employment, anti-discriminationlaw in the provision on good and services and anti-discrimination law in allthe other area since 2017. 2.
Pakistan The LGBT right are consider taboo in Pakistan.Pakistani law prescribe for same sex sexual act the Pakistan penal code of1860 originally developed on a colonialism punishers, sodomy with a possible prisonsentence and has other provisions of LGBT Pakistanis under the guise ofprotecting public mortality and order. Despite being a legal offence acts ofhomosexuality are rarely prosecuted in the country. Same sexual activities skilllegal and find less than 2-10 years of imprisonment, they cannot serve themilitary but the transgender people are allowed to change the gender and nofamily rights are provided to the couples.The Pakistani constitution does notexplicitly make mention of sexual orientation for gender identity, it containscertain provision that may impact the constitution right of LGBT. Part 37 the government pledges to promoteIslamic value mong its Muslim citizens and appose obscenity.
Part IX 27 Islam is the official statereligion and all law rules regulation and other such legislation must becompatible with Islam an appointed by the government appointed Islamic council.2 3. Bhutan WhileBhutan is pre dominantly teaches value like compassion and tolerance, its laware highly unfavourable towards LGBTs community that forms a tiny segment ofits society. Homosexuality has been criminalized by the penal code of Bhutan. Clause213 that states that dependence must be guilty of the offence of unnatural sexif the defendant engages in sodomy or any other sexual conduct against theorder of nature. According to IBBS survey among the vulnerable and keypopulation of Bhutan 2016 oven 42% of transgender women and 23% of gay bisexualare among the risk and have attempted multiple suicide3.Bhutan law do not provide any law fordiscrimination protection to these people.
Recognition of couple is not doneand the couple are also not allowed to adopt any child. Under Article 213 and214 4. Bangladesh LGBT people in Bangladesh do not enjoy thesame right the non LGBT people enjoy due to the conservative mind set if thepeople in Bangladesh under section 377 of Bangladeshi penal code.
Whoevervoluntarily has the carnal intercourse against the order of the nature with anymen women animal shall be imprisoned for life. Third gender is recognized butno discrimination protection is made, family relationship has not been recognized.Still part 2 article 19 promises equal opportunitiesfor all citizens. Part 3 article 27promise equality in front of the law for allthe citizens.
Thus, same sexual activity is awarded with life imprisonment ordeath. Equal age consent and anti dicrminational law in the provision of goodsand services and all other sectors, same sex marriage, stepchild adaptation isall restricted by Bangladeshi penal code. 4 5. Maldives LGBT rightsstill in development as the country continues to strongly reform an LGBT rightsdevelopment though universally periodic review and other recommendation was oneof the member of UN declaration on sexual identity. Homosexuality was originallycriminalized in Maldives in 1880s. The Maldives law criminalized homosexuality.The penal codes of Maldives work with Islamic Sharia law imposed to punish anyact related to homosexuality to life imprisonment or ‘hang to death’Same sexual activities are illegal.
Under thepenal code of section 410 (a) criminalizes same sex marriage. Under section 131of Maldives penal code is related to prohibition of sexual contact without anyreason permitted under Islamic Sharia law. Section 411 (a) 2 and 412(d)consider this an unlawful activity and penalize it with life imprisonment. Thepunishment includes up to eight years of imprisonment.
5 6. Afghanistan Thepenal code of 1976 was reinstated after the America invasion and it has severalprovision. Article 398 427 512 all stated that same sexual marriage is illegaland life imprisonment to death. Same sex marriage is banned.6 7. Nepal Same sexual marriage is legal since 2007.Yes, transgender are allowed to change their gender.
LGBT are allowed to servein military openly. Discrimination protection is provided by the constitutionbut no family recognition and they cannot adopt a child. 8. India Samesexual marriage is illegal under IPC penalty up to life imprisonment. Transgenderpeople have constitutional right to change gender and third gender is recognized.There is no discrimination protection, no military service , no recognition torelationship and they cannot adopt a child . 7 Case studies: Afghanistan 8The pleasing of Zia Hussain has beendismissed from the supreme court of Afghanistan on the basis as this caseviolates the law made by the government of Afghanistan.
Same sex marriage and same sex intercouse isnot legal and is not entertained by the society of Afghanistan. So the pleading of Zia Hussain is vague and thesetypes of actions are illegal and not acceptable in the society under theIslamic Sharia law is applied here. Article 398 article 427, 512 is in againstthe LGBT rights. The constitution stipulates that Afghanistan is anIslamic republic so LGBT people in Afghanistan will be charged to be violatingSharia law in lieu of being bought under penal code. The Afghanistan law onmarriage 1971 also considers it illegal .Article 430 estates that instigationof delinquency.
Nepal 9 Sunil Babu Pant and members filed a caseagainst the government of Nepal so as to claim the recognition of the sexualorientation of the minority groups of people. The pleading of Pant and members waspositively decided by the government of Nepal. The government of Nepal wasdirected to make legal provisions after considering recommendations made by thesaid committee. After the judgement on this case the law was passed in Nepalthe “marginalized” people were allowed to get married legally but no suchsocial inclusion and acceptation has been seen yet. CONCLUSION Hereby, weconclude that transgender people are the part of society and we cannot deny onthe fact that the western culture realize that soon and in SAARC countrieswhich spicily provide safety to human rights are ignorant against thetransgender and are directly eliminating their basic fundamental rights . So,to crate gender equality and to compete with te west the SAARC countrie have tocome together to give them rights and dignity so that these people can work fortheir country rather than fighting for iridentity.1 https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Sri_Lanka&grqid=_wIVw_Ib&hl=en-IN2 https://guides.nyu.edu/c.php?g=276622&p=18451323 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Bhutan4 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/aug/04/bangladesh-lgbt-community-gazi-nafis-ahmed-in-pictures5 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_Maldives6 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-368847327 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_India8 Zia Hasan vs government of Afghanistan 9 Sunil Baby Pant vs government of Nepal 1 2
