The Department of State’s 2011 Human Rights Report (released May 2012) catalogues an ongoing range of abuses and discriminatory treatment directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people worldwide – starkly underscoring what Secretary Hillary Clinton has called “…one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.”
Speaking in Geneva last December, Secretary Clinton noted that, too often, LGBT people remain an “invisible minority,” members of which “…are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed…” while “…authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse.”
The newly released report bears witness to such abuse. Most disturbingly, it documents that police, other government security forces, and prison personnel have been implicated directly in the harassment or abuse of LGBT citizens in a range of countries.
Download a summary of the 2011 report references to human rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity in approximately 190 countries.
By comparison Click here to see a summary of the 2010 report references to human rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
By law, the U.S. Congress requires the State Department to report annually on human rights conditions in all countries (except the United States). In 1993, the instructions on reporting were modified to require all U.S. embassies to include information on patterns of abuse directed at specific minority groups including those based on ethnicity, religion, trade union activity, sexual orientation or other factors. Embassies were also instructed to report on incitement to violence directed against these groups, whether instigated by the government or by other elements of society.
