On Wednesday evening, February 12, a solidarity meeting for LGBTI people in Russia and Chechnya will take place at 18 pm at the Amsterdam Homomonument. The meeting is an initiative of Russian-Dutch LGBTI activists and is supported by COC Netherlands. 

You can simply register and subscribe your HERE sign up (not required).

With the demonstration, the activists are responding to a decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. On January 29, he finally decided to give Russia full voting rights again. Russia had been stripped of that right to vote because of its annexation of Crimea. One of the conditions for regaining the right to vote was Russia's cooperation in an investigation into the detention, torture and murder of LGBTI people in Chechnya. That cooperation never materialized.

The Russian LGBT Network is outraged by the decision of the Council of Europe. "It is an attempt to cover up systematic torture, illegal detention, murder and other inhumane treatment of gay and bisexual people by the state in Chechnya," Russia's LGBTI organization said. The LGBT Network calls on activists worldwide to speak up. The Russian-Dutch activists and the COC are responding to that call with this action.

The activists and the COC want the Council of Europe to tackle Russia for human rights violations against LGBTI people in Russia and Chechnya. The Dutch delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly should play a particular role in this regard. They also want to encourage LGBTI people in Russia and Chechnya with their action on the Amsterdam Gay Monument.

In April 2017 it became known that the Autonomous Russian Republic of Chechnya is persecuting, torturing and even killing people on a large scale because of their sexual orientation. At the beginning of 2019, there was a new wave of prosecutions. An anti-gay law has been in effect throughout Russia since 2013. Since then, violence against LGBTI people has increased in Russia. Russia's negative role in LGBTI human rights also affects other Eastern European and Central Asian countries, such as Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

Together with activists, the COC organized numerous demonstrations, petitions and other initiatives against the persecution in Chechnya and the Russian anti-gay law. For example, in 2013 the largest demonstration for LGBTI rights in Russia ever was organized in Amsterdam, during a visit by Russian President Putin.

Solidarity meeting for LGBTI people in Russia and Chechnya
Wednesday 12 February 2020 from 18:00 – 19:30
Gay Monument
Westermarkt, Amsterdam
You can register HERE (not required).

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