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Beleaguered Nepal Gay Rights Group
To
Receive International Award
by
365Gay.com from the Web, April 17, 2007
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New York City -- The Blue
Diamond Society, Nepal's only LGBT civil rights organization, has been named the
recipient of a prestigious international award.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission will present the award
to Sunil Pant, the founder of BDS, at two awards ceremonies to be held on May 1
in New York and on May 3 in San Francisco.
Blue Diamond was founded in 2001 in an effort to address the needs of sexual
minorities and people living with HIV/AIDS in the tiny Himalayan kingdom.
Members of the LGBT community are arbitrarily arrested, held without a hearing
and beaten and tortured by prison guards.
Last year police arrested 26 transsexuals in one raid. According to Blue
Diamond they were taken to the Hanuman Dhoka central police station in Kathmandu
where they were held for weeks without being allowed to contact anyone.
Blue Diamond also said that people working in the areas of HIV prevention are
regularly harassed by police.
Nepal was one of several countries named in last year's State Department report
on human rights violators.
Nepal has come under increasing international condemnation for its treatment of
sexual minorities. In January, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Louise Arbour, criticized the new government of Nepal for not ending
discrimination against the LGBT community.
Earlier this month two young lesbians captured by Maoist guerrillas in southern
Nepal in March were been released after promising to join the rebels. (story)
A long term civil war between Maoists and the government of King Gyanendra ended
last year with the Maoists being invited to form a coalition government.
At the time Blue Diamond had hoped years of repression against the tiny
country's LGBT community would end but instead attacks have been stepped up.
This week Human Rights Watch in an open letter to the Maoist government called
for an end to anti-gay violence in Nepal.
The organization said the rights of the country's LGBT community should be
protected in a new constitution currently being prepared.
"As Nepal tries to recover from a decade of conflict, its leaders should make it
clear that no one's rights are disposable," said Jessica Stern, researcher in
the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch.
"Abusing women for their sexuality and forcibly recruiting children are simply
unacceptable in a new Nepal."
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission will present Pant with
the Felipa de Souza Award.
The Award acknowledges the courage and impact of grassroots groups and leaders
dedicated to improving the human rights of LGBT and other individuals
stigmatized and abused because of their sexuality or HIV status. The Award
carries with it a $5,000 stipend to assist and strengthen the ability of
grassroots human rights groups to do their work.
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