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Refugee status for all Afghan women seeking asylum in the EU+ Georgia adopts a draconian anti-LGBTQIA+ lawby Agustina Ordoqui Welcome to The Wrap, your monthly round-up of news on women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights around the world by the Impact newsletter. This month:
Read on for more. And if you want to be up-to-date on feminism worldwide, follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram. AFGHANISTAN — The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that nationality and gender alone are sufficient grounds for granting asylum to Afghan women. The decision came after the Austrian authorities refused to give refugee status to two Afghan women after they applied for asylum in 2015 and 2020. “AH” left Afghanistan with her mother and sisters as a teenager after her father tried to sell her, while “FN” was born in Iran to an Afghan family without a residence permit, and later applied for asylum in Austria. After being rejected, the women appealed to the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court, which in turn requested a ruling from the European Union’s highest court. If they had been sent to Afghanistan, they would have been forced to live in a regime that denies women and girls their basic rights, including the right to attend school, to work, to travel without a male guardian or even to speak or show their faces in public places. GEORGIA — The Georgian parliament has passed a law that will severely curtail the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, including a ban on same-sex marriage, gender-affirming care and adoptions by same-sex couples. The bill was signed into law in October. Introduced by the ruling Georgian Dream party earlier this year and strongly influenced by the Orthodox church, the bill also provides a legal basis to outlaw pride events and the rainbow flag, and could impose censorship of certain media, all supposedly to protect family values and minors from LGBTQIA+ “propaganda”. Just two days after the law was passed, a transgender woman – Kesaria Abramidz – was stabbed to death in her flat in the capital, Tbilisi, in an alleged hate crime. Georgia’s law has been compared to recent Russian legislation that bans gender-affirming care and outlaws the LGBTQIA+ movement in the country. Bulgaria also passed a similar law this year. SEYCHELLES — The Seychelles national assembly has approved a new hate crime law that includes sexual and gender identity as protected characteristics. Vice president Ahmed Afif proposed the amendment, which received 18 votes in favour and eight against. The hate crimes provisions specifically include factors such as sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV/AIDS status. For a first conviction, the bill provides for fines of $3,600 and up to two years in prison, while repeat offenders will face fines of $8,600 and up to three years in prison. The Seychelles decriminalised consensual same-sex sexual relations in 2016. It now becomes the second African country to consider hate motives as aggravating factors in crimes, after South Africa passed similar legislation in 2018. US — US states that have recently enacted anti-transgender laws have seen suicide attempts among transgender youth increase, a Trevor Project study published in the journal Nature has revealed. The researchers examined how 48 anti-trans laws that were enacted in 19 US state governments between 2018 and 2022 affected suicide risk among young people. Compared to the previous year and to states that did not implement restrictive laws, it was found that there were statistically significant increases in suicide attempts in the first year after the enactment of anti-trans laws. Some of these restrictions include denying access to gender-affirming care or forcing trans students to use the restrooms of their assigned sex at birth. The study found that suicide attempts among transgender teenagers aged 13-17 increased by up to 72% following the passage of anti-trans laws, while the rate rose by 44% when including a full sample of trans and non-binary youth aged 13-24 years. The findings highlight the importance of considering the mental health impact of restricting trans and non-binary people’s rights. MEXICO — With 20 votes in favour, 16 against and one null, the Jalisco congress decriminalised voluntary abortion up to 12 weeks, repealing article 227 and modifying article 228 of the state’s penal code. The bill also introduces article 228 bis which considers criminal sanctions for anyone who forces a woman to have an abortion without her consent. As a result, Jalisco aligns itself with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the non-criminalisation of abortion, and consolidates as the 14th Mexican state to decriminalise the voluntary termination of pregnancy. In April, a Jalisco court had already ordered the local congress to repeal penalties for abortion. BELGIUM — The right-wing Arizona coalition voted against a bill introduced by left parties that would have extended abortion time limits in Belgium to 18 weeks, as well as eliminating a mandatory pre-termination “reflection period”. The initiative was presented to the parliament’s Justice Committee, but it was rejected. Abortion is legal up to 12 weeks in Belgium, following a reflection period of six days between the first medical consultation and the start of the procedure. As a result, every year more than 350 women travel to the Netherlands, where abortion is legal until 22 weeks, to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Since parliament opened on 19 September, feminist activists have demonstrated in front of the Palace of Justice with an abortion bus, illustrating the situation of Belgian women. However, just ten days later, the right wing shot down the bill, forcing women to continue travelling to another country to exercise their right to choose. US — The Georgia supreme court halted a ruling that overturned the state’s near-ban on abortions while it considers the state’s appeal. Previously, a court had struck down the six-week ban on abortion, a period before most people know they are pregnant, allowing abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. The six-week ban took effect in 2022, halving the number of abortions performed in the state. Many women received abortion pills by mail, while others were forced to travel to other states to terminate their pregnancies. But, due to the prohibition or restriction of abortion in many southern states, women had to travel thousands of miles to Virginia, or North Carolina, where two visits must be made within 72 hours to access the procedure. Last month, the investigative journalism site ProPublica revealed that two women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, had died as a result of Georgia’s abortion ban. FRANCE — During september, thousands of people participated in nationwide demonstrations in support of Gisèle Pelicot, a victim of mass rape in France. More than 30 rallies took place in French cities and towns, including Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux. Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique is currently standing trial accused of drugging her with sedatives and inviting men from their community of Mazan in southern France to rape her over the course of a decade while they were married. There are 50 male co-defendents whose participation in the mass rape could be ascertained through photos and videos found on Dominique Pelicot’s laptop and phone, although it is estimated that there were at least 30 more perpetrators in total. The abuse was discovered when Dominique Pelicot was apprehended for filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket. Gisèle Pelicot was unaware of what was happening to her until she was approached by police with the evidence in 2020, though she had suffered seemingly inexplicable injuries for years. She has waived her right to anonymity and on Monday thanked protesters for their support. “Thanks to all of you, I have the strength to continue this fight until the end, a fight that I dedicate to all the women and men around the world who are victims of sexual violence,” she said. “Look around you, you are not alone.” SOUTH KOREA — Huge numbers of women and girls are being targeted with explicit deepfake images in South Korea, a reporter and authorities have found in separate investigations. The fake pornographic images and videos, constructed with artificial intelligence using real photos of victims, are being distributed by perpetrators on social media, mainly through Telegram groups. Media outlets have reported that some of the groups in which the images were spread had more than 220,000 members. The government has launched a crackdown to investigate the perpetrators and a campaign to raise public awareness against sexually abusive deepfakes. South Korean authorities are also investigating Telegram itself, which has pledged to remove the content. The messaging service was already under public scrutiny: last month, its founder Pavel Durov was arrested and indicted in France on charges related to illegal activity on the platform, including child pornography. In October, South Korean lawmakers passed a bill that criminalises possessing or watching explicit deepfake images and videos. The bill must be approved by President Yoon Suk Yeol to be enacted. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — An internal report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) revealed that 268 of 348 women prisoners were raped or suffered sexual violence, mainly by male prisoners, following a mass escape attempt at Makala, the largest prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The prison houses more than 15,000 inmates, despite having capacity for only 1,500. During the riot, 131 people were killed. Prison authorities admitted that there were episodes of sexual violence, although they never indicated that it affected 80% of the female inmates. According to Human Rights Watch, some female inmates received post-rape care, such as emergency contraception against pregnancy and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV within 72 hours of the attacks, but did not receive counselling until 10 days later. The episodes are under investigation. NICARAGUA — Nicaragua has expelled 141 political prisoners opposed to the regime of Daniel Ortega, including 25 women activists. The detainees were transferred by plane to Guatemala, from where some of the arbitrarily detained women revealed that they had been constantly assaulted by security forces and deprived of seeing their children. Among the women who were expelled from the country were Anielka García, who was arrested for wearing an anti-government T-shirt, as well as Adela Espinoza, Gabriela Morales and Mayela Campos, feminist activists who were detained last year for burning a Sandinista Liberation Front flag during a demonstration. A UN report released this month found there was a ‘systematic effort’ to dismantle civil society organisations, particularly those defending women’s rights in Nicaragua. At least 245 have been targeted since 2018. Of these, 25% were working on gender-based violence, 25% on women’s economic empowerment, 11% assisted Indigenous and Afro-descendant women, and 8% were focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights. New here?Impact is a weekly newsletter of feminist journalism, dedicated to the rights of women and gender-diverse people worldwide. This is the English version of our newsletter; you can read the French one here.
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