HRC’s Sound the Alarm initiative raises the visibility of situations where the safety and security of LGBTQ+ advocates and people are in danger, and where such visibility has been requested and will be helpful to those at risk.
Our objectives through the Sound the Alarm initiative are to:
The type of situations highlighted include, but are not limited to: instances of anti-LGBTQ+ violence and hate crimes, government scapegoating, persecution or censorship, criminalization of consensual same-sex relations between adults and imposition of restrictions on human rights advocacy. HRC will not highlight a country when its engagement would endanger local LGBTQ+ community members.
Among the many issues that we track, one of our main priorities is the decriminalization of same-sex sexual relations.
HRC also shares news and information about the impact of major global developments on the global equality movement.
During the COVID pandemic, we spotlighted a number of ways in which advocates around the world responded.
Learn more below about what's happening in:
LGBTQ+ communities across Uganda are facing increased violence and assaults on their human rights. These developments come as media, political and governmental leaders, and others have ramped up verbal attacks on LGBTQ+ people.
Here are some of the most recent developments:
HRC continues to take steps to speak out about the violence directed at LGBTQ+ people and assaults on their rights in Uganda. We condemn these brutal attacks.
��THREAD��@HRC is sounding the alarm about violence against LGBTQ+ people in Uganda.
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) November 25, 2019
With our partners, we call on all to learn about these incidents & let their governments know they must engage the Ugandan government to protect LGBTQ+ people’s rights. https://t.co/rDy0nPwBfi
You can take action in support of the human rights of LGBTQ people in Uganda by:
Since 2017, more than 100 people have been rounded up, detained and tortured in the Russian republic of Chechnya because they were suspected of being gay or bisexual. As many as 20 were murdered by the state or by victims’ own families, who had been encouraged by their government to conduct “honor killings” to “cleanse” their family names. You can play a role in halting the atrocities in Chechnya. Read more and take action here.
HRC has taken a number of actions to draw attention to these crimes against humanity:
You can continue to take action by calling on Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo to speak out and help protect the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya and around the world.
.@HRC has our #EyesOnChechnya, as reports emerge of renewed anti-LGBTQ+ violence and killings.
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) January 16, 2019
These crimes against humanity must cease. https://t.co/Ogvhr7SZAb
LGBTQ+ people have been subjected to widespread social ostracism and violent attack from government officials, religious leaders and vigilantes in since early 2016 in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
LGBTQ+ people have been arbitrarily arrested and outed to the media, transgender women have had their hair shaved off in public, and some local governments have sponsored vigilante squads to harass LGBTQ+ people. In 2017, HRC joined a coalition to denounce the growing persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Indonesia.
Gay men have been brutally flogged in front of thousands of jeering spectators in Aceh, an autonomous province governed by a strict form of Sharia law.
In the Indonesian Parliament, proposed changes to the country's criminal code would criminalize sex outside of marriage. This would effectively make sex for a great many LGBTQ+ people illegal, as same-sex marriage is also not legal in Indonesia. This and other proposed reforms drove tens of thousands of Indonesians to take to the streets in protest in the fall of 2019.
HRC continues to raise visibility about what is happening in Indonesia to lawmakers, policymakers, multilateral institutions and our members and supporters.
In October 2018 the regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam announced he would authorize mass arrests of LGBTQ+ people. While the Tanzanian national government distanced itself from the inflammatory remarks of the commissioner, LGBTQ+ people have reported feeling under threat.
International condemnation was swift. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement expressing alarm. The World Bank, the European Union, and the U.S. government also released statements expressing concern. Denmark cut $10 million in aid to Tanzania citing the worsening human rights situation.
While the massive arrests never materialized, a few weeks after the regional politician’s comments, police arrested several gay men in Zanzibar.
HRC has taken a number of actions:
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