Starting from today, public events and campaigns, as well as community events and workshops for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people will be held as part of the IDAHOBIT week.
Every year on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia is celebrated. It has been celebrated since 2005 at the initiative of various human rights defender organizations. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness about discrimination and violence against LGBT people.
It is known that LGBT people often face stereotypically negative attitudes from society, which leads to discrimination, harassment, and violence against them. A discriminatory atmosphere reigns everywhere, and it takes more time to raise the issues of LGBT people, that is why IDAHOBIT is now celebrated in a week instead of a day.
This year IDAHOBIT aims to raise awareness about crimes against LGBT people in Armenia and the atmosphere of their impunity. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the DIY pub explosion in Yerevan, and so far, no appropriate action has been taken to bring the perpetrators to justice. Accordingly, Pink began conducting its strategic litigations in 2012, the first of which was the case of the DIY pub explosion. In 2014, Pink filed its second strategic litigation against the “Iravunk” newspaper, which published an article against LGBT activists the same year with the following title: “They serve the interests of international homosexual lobbying: the blacklist of enemies of nation and state”. Another strategic litigation conducted by Pink is the case of Shurnukh, when on August 3, 2009, nine young people, including LGBT activists, were attacked based on their real or alleged sexual orientation or gender identity in the Shurnukh community of the Syunik region.
None of the above-mentioned court cases has yet been properly resolved; the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. All three cases were repeatedly appealed by Pink and are now being investigated not only in Armenian courts but also in the European Court of Human Rights.
Pink has made a video about its strategic litigations titled “10 Years of Impunity” which covers the process of the three strategic litigations conducted by the organization. The video is intended for government and law enforcement agencies, urging them to take appropriate steps to improve the human rights situation of LGBT people․ The video is also aimed at the public urging them to be aware of the human rights situation of LGBT people and to not discriminate people, including based on SOGI․
[English subtitles are available]
