Iranian Gays Omitted from
Human Rights Watch's Annual Reports
If the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, became interested in what the Human Rights Watch had to say in their Iran section of their latest annual World Report about homosexuals in his country, and the abuse of human rights for gays there, shockingly, he'd find nothing in that section.
HRW, for unknown reasons, omits gays not just from their 2007 country roundup, but actually from the 2006, 2005, and 2004 versions.
Two of my colleagues who care deeply about gay Iranians and the human rights violations they suffer, including executions, also went over the four more recent HRW World Reports, and in the chapters for Iran, the words gay, homosexual, lesbian, transsexual, transgender, orientation, didn't appear once before our eyes.
Why is HRW excluding gay Iranians from their yearly survey of human rights practices for the Islamic Republic of Iran? I wish they would answer such a basic question.
I recently phoned and emailed HRW executives and LGBT researchers about a report they may have produced in September 2006, after months of exhaustive research and interviews with gay Iranians in country and in exile.
Scott Long, HRW's gay issues director, wrote in Gay City News in July 2006:
For eight months, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has researched a report on abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Iran, interviewing dozens in Iran and the diaspora, trying to separate fact from rhetoric and rumor. As a prominent Iranian dissident said last week, “We need cases!” — documentation, not speculation.
So far as anyone can tell, HRW never issued the promised gay Iranian report. If I can't get HRW executives to either produce the URL address for the report, or explain why they never issued it, I assuredly will not hear from HRW about the omission of gays from annual reports.
Interesting that during these four years, the US State Department's human rights annual surveys for Iran have reported on the violations faced by Iranian gays.
Let's look at the HRW versus State Department yearly summaries for Iran, related to homosexuals:
2007
HRW World Report
"_______________________."US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
Violence and legal and societal discrimination against women, ethnic and religious minorities, and homosexuals; trafficking in persons; and incitement to anti-Semitism remained problems. [...]2006
On August 6, the general prosecutor ordered to close the last major reformist daily Shargh. The ban placed on Shargh in September 2006 was lifted on May 14, but the paper was operational for less than three months before being closed again. The government reportedly closed the newspaper in response to a published interview with a writer accused of being a homosexual activist. [...]
In 2004 the judiciary formed the Special Protection Division, a volunteer unit that monitored and reported moral crimes. The law prohibited and punished homosexuality; sodomy between consenting adults was a capital crime. The punishment of a non-Muslim homosexual was harsher if the homosexual's partner was Muslim. At a speech at Columbia University in September, the president publicly denied the existence of homosexuals in the country.
HRW World Report
"_______________________."US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
The law prohibits and punishes homosexuality; sodomy between consenting adults is a capital crime. The punishment of a non-Muslim homosexual is harsher if the homosexual's partner is Muslim. In July 2005 two teenage boys, one 16 and one 18 years of age, were publicly executed; they were charged with raping a 13-year-old boy. A number of groups outside the country alleged the two were executed for homosexuality; however, because of the lack of transparency in the court system, there was no concrete information.
In November 2005 domestic conservative press reported that two men in their twenties were hanged in public for lavat (defined as sexual acts between men). The article also said they had a criminal past, including kidnapping and rape. It was not possible to judge whether these men were executed for homosexuality or other crimes.
2005
HRW World Report
"_______________________."
In July two teenage boys, one 16 and one 18 years of age, were publicly executed; they were charged with raping a 13-year-old boy. A number of groups outside the country alleged the two were executed for homosexuality; however, because of the lack of transparency in the court system, there was no concrete information (see section 1.c.). In November domestic conservative press reported that two men in their twenties were hanged in public for lavat (defined as sexual acts between men). The article also said they had a criminal past, including kidnapping and rape. It was not possible to judge whether these men were executed for homosexuality or other crimes.
According to the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, the justice system did not actively investigate charges of homosexuality. There were known meeting places for homosexuals, and there had been no recent reports of homosexuals executed. However, the group acknowledged it was possible that a case against a homosexual could be pursued. Conversely, the London-based homosexual rights group OutRage! claimed over four thousand homosexuals had been executed in the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979. A September 29 Western newspaper gave one man's account of a systematic effort by security agents and basiji to use Internet sites to entrap homosexuals.
2004
HRW World Report
"_______________________."US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
The law prohibits and punishes homosexuality. The punishment of a non-Muslim homosexual is harsher if the homosexual's partner is Muslim.
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