Vreemdelingenrecht.com - het weblog

Mr. U. Rosenthal Minister of Foreign Affairs PO Box 20061 2500 EB Den Haag The Netherlands Dear Minister Rosenthal, I am writing to you regarding the section in your December 2011 Netherlands Country Report on Iraq about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. While Human Rights Watch appreciates your government’s discussion of Iraqis identifying as LGBT in the report, we are concerned that the section downplays the severe challenges and risks faced by the LGBT community in Iraq. Your report suggests that the most significant problems facing the LGBT community in Iraq are that “homosexuality is a social taboo” and that “people are generally disapproving of homosexuality.” The situation for the LGBT community is much more dire than what the report states. Even though in a footnote the Dutch report refers to the 2009 Human Rights Watch report “They Want Us Exterminated”: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq, it does not address the alarmin...

9 maart 2012, Giel van der Steenhoven Het COC wil een categoriaal toelatingsbeleid voor homoseksuelen Irakezen. Het COC wordt daarbij gesteund door Human Rights Watch, dat al in 2009 aan de bel trok vanwege de doodseskaders die in Irak op LHBT’ers jagen. ”De situatie in Irak is levensgevaarlijk en LHBT’s worden er systematisch geconfronteerd met gruwelijkheden”, zegt COC-voorzitter Vera Bergkamp. “De bescherming die Nederland momenteel biedt aan LHBT-asielzoekers uit Irak is volstrekt onvoldoende. Wij vragen minister Leers om hen als groep asiel te verlenen.” LHBT-asielzoekers moeten momenteel nog aantonen dat zij in hun land van herkomst persoonlijk gevaar lopen om uitzetting te vermijden. Voor Iran wordt een uitzondering gemaakt. LHBT-asielzoekers uit dat land hoeven enkel aan te tonen dat ze homoseksueel zijn. Het COC schat dat er momenteel vijf tot vijftien LHBT-asielzoekers in Nederland het risico lopen te worden ...

13-09-2010 Tens of thousands of detainees held without trial in Iraq, many of whom were recently transferred from US custody, remain at risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, Amnesty International said in a new report launched today. NEW ORDER, SAME ABUSES: Unlawful detentions and torture in Iraq details thousands of arbitrary detentions, sometimes for several years without charge or trial, severe beatings of detainees, often in secret prisons, to obtain forced confessions, and enforced disappearances. “Iraq’s security forces have been responsible for systematically violating detainees’ rights and they have been permitted to do so with impunity,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Yet, the US authorities, whose own record on detainees' rights has been so poor, have now handed over thousands of people detained by US forces to face this catalogue of illegality, violence and abuse, abdicating any responsibility ...