On 9 March, The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released a scathing report on Hungary, calling for efforts to address political hate speech, protect the bodily integrity of intersex people, re-instate legal gender recognition, review laws adopted under the “state of emergency” and repeal its so-called “anti-propaganda” law.

On 8 March, people who attempted to join the International Women’s Day march in Bishkek with LGBTI symbols were removed from the march by the police. One of them was detained and later was released, but the police imposed fines on the person for “disobeying the law enforcement”. Hundreds of people marched across Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan.

On 18 March, LGBTI activists were violently attacked by a group of hooligans in Banja Luka, the administrative center of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The attack happened after local police banned the film screening and a panel discussion about the human rights of LGBTI people, citing security concerns. ILGA-Europe said that “it shows clearly how politicians are inciting hatred against LGBTI people and refusing their international human rights obligations to protect from violence and ensure fundamental freedoms for all people”.

On 17 March, MP Jamila Isaeva of Kyrgyzstan initiated an “anti-LGBTI propaganda” legislation. She proposed to amend the existing law on protecting children from harmful information and expand the definition of “harmful information” as “any information that denies traditional family values, propagates for non-traditional sexual relations, and any information that spreads disrespect to parents and other family members”. The first attempt to introduce a similar bill in 2015 failed as the initiative saw a very strong and united resilience from the LGBTI movement.

On 1 March, the application for a Bulgarian birth certificate for a child of two mothers, one of whom is a Bulgarian citizen, was rejected by the country’s Supreme Administrative Court, despite an opposite ruling from The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In December 2021, the CJEU ruled that it is contrary to the fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 7 and 24 of the Charter for Baby Sara to be deprived of the relationship with one of her parents when exercising her right of free movement or for her exercise of that right to be made impossible or excessively difficult on the ground that her parents are of the same sex.

On 19 March, Zhanar Sekerbayeva, co-founder of Feminita and feminist and LGBTI activist ran in municipal elections for the Almaty City Council. This is the first time an openly LGBTI person was a candidate in an election in Central Asia. Her election campaign centred around women’s rights including rights of marginalised women, which she announced at the women’s rally on 8 March. Although she did not secure a seat in the Almaty council, Zhanar’s candidacy was exemplary of the growing visibility of LGBTI people in Kazakhstan.

ILGA World launched their database, an online knowledge base on laws, advocacy opportunities, human rights bodies and news related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics worldwide. You will be able to access the information on the Database in two ways: either through each of the areas or, in a cross-cutting way, by jurisdiction. Each of the 193 UN member States and 47 non-UN member jurisdictions have their own profile, where you will find all the information relevant to each of them.
Access the database.