When will ASEAN protect gender rights?

Source: Rappler.com

Photo Credit: AFP

MANILA, Philippines - It’s one of the promises of the leaders in Southeast Asia this year – to come up with a human rights declaration for the region’s 600 million people.

Advocates of gender rights have to ask, however: what did the authorities mean when they spoke of human rights? Were they referring only to the rights of the heterosexual citizens of the region, or did they also consider the rights of the members of the lesbian, gay and transgender community across the 10-member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations?

15 targeted killings of lesbians in Thailand since 2006: IGLHRC report

By Sylvia Tan
Source: Fridae.Asia

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has compiled 15 documented cases of killings and rapes of lesbians; and demands an immediate police investigation into the pattern of the violent murders.

Its the first report of its kind that draws attention to what activists have described as hate crimes against lesbians and masculine-presenting women in Thailand a country commonly regarded to be one of the most LGBT-friendly in Southeast Asia.