Criminalising Homosexuality: Indicators of Good Governance

This note examines how, in addition to the criminalisation of LGBT people being an indicator of poor governance and poor human rights in and of itself, countries that criminalise tend to rank poorly on other indicators too.

A series of ground-breaking briefing notes were produced by the Human Dignity Trust in the second half of 2015. These notes aim to illustrate the link between the criminalisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and various aspects of good governance. They also offer information and guidance to governments, the international community, civil society and activists on how to bring about the decriminalisation of same-sex sexual activity across the globe. This research draws on our experience working with activists in criminalising countries and our expertise in international human rights law. They were produced in consultation with leading academics in each of the areas addressed.

This briefing note outlines indicators of governance against propensity to criminalise. These indicators include: democratic credentials, gender equality, press freedom, corruption, rule of law and judicial independence.

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