To submit a blog, please read the OxHRH Blog guidelines.
Reuven (Ruvi) Ziegler - 30th June 2020
Tel Aviv’s mayor, Ron Huldai, announced on 21 June 2020 that the city will revise its digital registers, enabling same-sex couples to register their relationship. They would then be eligible for housing allowances and registration would ease enrolment of their children in publicly funded day-cares and schools. Opposite-sex couples who either cannot get married in […]
Alix Schulz - 29th June 2020
In a recent decision, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH) ruled that the newly introduced section 45b and section 22(3) of the German Civil Status Act (Personenstandsgesetz – PStG) only applied to persons with a biological intersex condition and that “merely perceived intersexuality” was not covered by these provisions. The court thereby […]
Paras Ahuja and Rahul Garg - 25th June 2020
On 19 May 2020, the Parliament of Hungary passed the controversial T/9934-Amendment Bill [“Amendment”], amending Act I of 2010, Civil Registration Procedure [“Act”]. The Act lays down the procedure for national registration and certification of births, deaths and marriages based on one’s gender. Article 44(3) of the Act requires registration of names based on one’s […]
Alvin Attalo - 23rd June 2020
The Rafiki case concerns the alleged violation of the right to freedom of expression due to the censorship of a film with scenes depicting women in a same-sex relationship. Upholding the censorship, the Kenyan High Court failed to apply a proportionality analysis – – sanctioning an unjustified limitation of the right to freedom of expression […]
Akshita Tiwary - 16th June 2020
In a historic development concerning women’s rights, the Sudanese transitional government on 22nd April, criminalised the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) and made it punishable for up to three years in prison. FGM is a dangerous and discriminatory practice which results in the partial or total removal of external female genitalia without any medical […]
Nomfundo Ramalekana - 15th June 2020
Recognising the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 would have on black-owned businesses, the South African government introduced policies which set requirements that gave black-owned businesses an advantage. In a recent high court judgement, Solidarity OBO Members v Minister of Small Business Development, the court affirmed one such measure. This judgement upheld the commitment to substantive equality. […]
Manizha Ashna - 14th June 2020
The negotiations for peace in Afghanistan have raised the spectre of the Taliban returning to some degree of national power. Many Afghan women are concerned that their rights might be traded away or that negotiations will result in restoration of the Taliban’s rules from the 1990s. The government and the international community must stand with […]
- 12th June 2020
The Corona-virus pandemic has had a significant impact on the sex work industry in India. Sex work in India largely falls under the bracket of the informal sector as the women who do sex work mostly earn daily wages. This reflects the plight of over 657,799 sex workers in India, the estimate of the total […]
- 11th June 2020
Despite a decade-long contentious debate on whether Malawians are entitled to human rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTQI+ rights), there was no nationally representative data about the opinions of Malawians on the matter. The absence of data meant that despite decision makers claiming to express the wishes of Malawians when implementing policies […]
- 8th June 2020
Conversion therapy (CT) is a constellation of medical, psychoanalytic, behavioural, religious techniques and interventions, that seek to alter an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. It stigmatises same-sex attraction as a disorder. Lawmakers around the world have proposed new legislation to ban CTs. Recently, Germany became the latest country to impose a legislative ban […]
- 5th June 2020
After decades of campaigning, parliamentary debates, court cases, national and international inquiries abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in October 2019 by the UK government. In doing so it became one of the few countries in the world to decriminalise abortion and the first part of the UK to achieve this. Regulations governing abortion services […]
- 4th June 2020
On 19th May 2020, the Hungarian parliament passed Bill T/9934. Article 33 of the Bill makes information on an individual’s gender marker legally immutable post-sex assignment at birth. In the face of considerable international fulmination against the introduction of the Bill, the Hungarian parliament’s actions reflect an obstinate disregard for human rights. Article 33 wrecks […]