June is Pride month all over the world and a time to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and their rights. Unfortunately, although advances have been seen, LGBTQIA+ rights continue being violated worldwide, including in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
In Europe, the situation is worsening in some countries like Poland, with an increasing number of Polish LGBTQIA+ people fleeing the country, while Hungary used the new propaganda law to ban the promotion of homosexuality and trans issues at school.
In the MENA region, freedom of expression and registration for LGBTQIA+ associations are still almost impossible. EuroMed Rights has been raising awareness on these (too numerous) violations through a Twitter campaign about the state of LGBTQIA+ rights in the MENA region, highlighting especially two countries:
- In Turkey, while no law prevents expressions of gender identity nor same-sex conduct, in practice LGBTQIA+ communities are repressed, as you can hear in EuroMed Rights’s last podcast:
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In Morocco, same-sex conduct or expression of the gender identity can be punished by arrest and imprisonment. Listen to Ayouba, Moroccan LGBTQIA+ activist from the association Nassawiyat :
EuroMedRights will continue to highlight LGBTQIA+ violations and invite targeted communities to share them on its monitoring tool.