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23 September 2024

Breaking the silence

Human Dignity Trust
The second edition of this key report by Human Dignity Trust on the criminalisation of lesbians and bisexual women.
International Development

Details

Female consensual same-sex conduct is criminalised in up to third of countries globally.

Research and activism on criminalisation tends, in many cases, to treat LGBT people as a homogeneous group. Virtually all the legal analyses and
case law to date, for example, have been centred primarily on the criminalisation of male same-sex intimacy.

This report by Human Dignity Trust seeks to fill the gap and aid political and legal reform by analysing both the status of criminalisation of lesbians and bisexual women as a particular group, and the unique and overlapping human rights violations they experience that are fostered and perpetuated, directly or indirectly, through the criminal law.

This is the second edition of this report, the first of which was published in 2016. Several countries have struck down legislation criminalising same-sex conduct between women since then (Trinidad & Tobago, Bhutan, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Dominica) but two others have introduced new laws (Chad and Brunei).

The first edition can be found here.