UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday urged Russian MPs to stop the country’s ongoing tightening of the country’s so-called anti-LGBTI law, which bans advertising for “non-traditional sexual relations.”
Amendments to the 2013 law, broadly approved on Thursday by Russia’s lower house of parliament (the Duma), “expand the scope of the law, which has already been characterized by human rights experts as discriminatory, contrary to freedom of speech, and fueling a rise in hate speech and crime,” he defended. Turk.
Legislative changes ‘worse the situation’ [da comunidade LGBTI – lésbicas, gays, bissexuais, transgénero e intersexuais] expanding the scope of the law to a complete ban on communication on this topic,” UN agency spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani added at a press conference, quoting the high commissioner.
Russian MPs should reject the amendment and even repeal the 2013 law, “taking immediate action to prohibit and combat discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” the spokeswoman added.
“Exclusion, stigmatization and discrimination against any group in a society can generate violence and have a negative impact on that society as a whole,” he stressed.
Under the bill, people who spread LGBTI propaganda, previously banned only for minors, could be fined between 820 and 6,550 euros, and organizations could be fined up to 81,800 euros.
The most severe sanctions apply to “advertising” that is distributed to minors through the media or the Internet, or when the broadcaster is a foreigner.
According to the version approved by the Duma on Thursday, the law now bans “denial of family values” and “propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations,” including among adults, and films that do this “will not receive a distribution certificate.” .”.
The text also forbids “information that may cause a desire to change sex” in children.
The law still has two more votes to go before Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, passes the amended law and submits it to President Vladimir Putin for promulgation, usually a mere formality.
In recent years, Russia has strengthened its more conservative wing in response to what Vladimir Putin calls the decline of Western society.
This rise in conservatism was further intensified by the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, presented by the Russian President (Kremlin) as another fight against the Western world, aimed, in Moscow’s opinion, at the eradication of Russia.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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