Cai Wilkinson

Putting “Traditional Values” Into Practice: The Rise and Contestation of Anti-Homopropaganda Laws in Russia

This article explores how “traditional values” are being used by the Russian government to refute the claim that “LGBT rights are human rights” and justify the introduction of anti-homopropaganda laws, and how members of the Russian LGBT community have sought to contest it. Centrally, it traces the development of a discourse that refutes the essentialization of sexual identity and, in doing so, seeks to challenge the focus on individual identity-based rights of contemporary human rights norms. This discursive shift has meant that opponents of the legislation have had to develop contestation strategies that collectively seek to present an alternative interpretation of “traditional values.” The article concludes by considering the implications of the Russian case for human rights norms and for the notion of universal human rights more widely, arguing that it represents a serious challenge to the viability of identity-based LGBT rights claims as a basis on which to advance observance of fundamental human rights due to their homonormativity.

Special Issue: Not Such an International Human Rights Norm? Local Resistance to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights—Preliminary Comments

The issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights has loomed large in debates over human rights in recent years. In the domestic politics of Western countries, the headline issue has been same-sex marriage, which as of May 2014 is legal in 16 countries as well as a growing number of subnational jurisdictions including 19 US states (Lambda Legal 2014). Internationally, meanwhile, the focus has been on the decriminalization of homosexuality—homosexuality carries the death penalty in five countries and is criminalized in a further 70 countries (BBC News 2014)—and advocating for the recognition and observation of the basic human rights of LGBT people to be protected from violence and discrimination. Arguably, the clearest articulation of this stance was made by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a speech to mark International Human Rights Day on December 6, 2011. While acknowledging both the sensitivity of the issue and her own country’s imperfect record on LGBT rights, she presented a strong and cogent argument in favor of LGBT rights being included in international human rights norms and laws:

What's in a name? The personal and political meanings of ‘LGBT’ for non-heterosexual and transgender youth in Kyrgyzstan

In this article, we focus on the ways in which non-heterosexual and transgender youth involved with the non-governmental organization ‘Labrys’ in Kyrgyzstan have begun to demand the protection of their basic civil and human rights on the basis of self-identification as ‘LGBT’. This acronym, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, is relatively new to Kyrgyzstan and other post-Soviet states, and represents a change in the terms used by non-heterosexual and transgender people to describe themselves. We frame our discussion using the concepts of sexual citizenship, private/public divides and stigma and base our discussion on debates amongst the staff and community of Labrys about the purpose and scope of the organization. Centrally, we suggest that the strategic use of ‘LGBT’ as a public and politicized identity represents a new, pro-active form of stigma management. By employing this strategy, young LGBT people become ‘would-be’ sexual citizens and challenge traditional societal norms that seek to keep discussion of sex and sexuality in the private sphere and restrict rights to heterosexual, cisgender citizens.

Imagining Kyrgyzstan's nationhood and statehood: reactions to the 2010 Osh violence

This article explores the tensions inherent in how Kyrgyzstans nationhood and statehood have been imagined and practised via an analysis of local reactions to the findings of the Kyrgyzstan Inquiry Commissions (KIC) investigation into the 2010 Osh violence and in particular the threat narrative that developed in opposition to the investigation. In the wake of the clashes that erupted in Osh in June 2010, a recurrent theme was calls from the international community for an independent investigation. Within Kyrgyzstan, however, some politicians argued that investigations violated the republics sovereignty. Despite local reluctance, a number of investigations did subsequently take place. Yet the reports of the respective investigations did little to quell controversy, with the KIC report being strongly criticized and declared a threat to national security. The strength of feeling demonstrated by this reaction was indicative of long-standing and unresolved tensions in Kyrgyzstan between international and local imaginings of nationhood and statehood. The article concludes by arguing that nationhood and statehood need to be reimagined to focus on re-establishing state–society relations by both local and international actors in order for Kyrgyzstan to begin repairing the already fragile sociopolitical relationships that were grievously damaged by the violence and the subsequent investigations.

From Blogging Central Asia to Citizen Media: A Practitioners’ Perspective on the Evolution of the neweurasia Blog Project

Abstract This essay examines the development of one regional blogosphere, the Central Asian ‘Stanosphere’, through a focus on the neweurasia blog project. The neweurasia project began in 2005 as an English-language volunteer-run blog project about the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus, rapidly becoming one of the most visited blogs about the region. Following this auspicious start, over the next five years neweurasia developed into a multi-language locally driven project with more than 80,000 unique page views on average per month. Despite its indisputable successes, the project was often a steep learning curve for all involved. In this essay, we examine neweurasias evolution from ‘blogging Central Asia’ towards a citizen media project, and reflect on some of the issues and challenges encountered. On the basis of our discussion, we reflect upon how neweurasia, and citizen media in general, can maximise its impact on the nascent Stanosphere, in the process helping to give Central Asia a voice in the global blogosphere.

Human rights in Papua New Guinea: is this where we should be settling refugees?

Australia has had a long, and at times tumultuous, relationship with our nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea. This relationship took a twist in late 2012, with the re-opening of the off-shore processing centre on Manus Island, and again in February 2014, when Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati was murdered by locals during a violent disturbance at the centre. The latest test of the strength and endurance of the relationship between PNG and Australia came in April 2016, when the PNG Supreme Court ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island breached the right to personal liberty in the PNG constitution. This article provides much-needed insight into the human rights situation in PNG, and makes recommendations regarding the prospect of resettling refugees in that country.

Community, identity, orientation: sexuality, gender and rights in ASEAN

ABSTRACT The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) escalated its community building project significantly over the last decade, culminating in the launch of a reformed and substantially integrated ASEAN Community at the end of 2015. This article considers what might follow from this newly reformed and rhetorically people-focused version of ASEAN for matters of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE). In claiming to be people-oriented and people-centred, and by developing a regional rights regime, ASEAN opens itself to standards by which it can be measured and held to account. We critically review ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together, and consider civil societys response, focusing on the critique offered by the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, the peak civil society organisation for ASEAN SOGIE matters. We focus on three themes: identity, visibility politics, and rights. We argue that while ASEAN falls short of its own rhetorical standards, these same standards support a politics which keeps rights in contestation, enabling civil society to push for accountability to international standards, and a more democratic politics.

LGBT activism in Kyrgyzstan: What role for Europe?

Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Bishkek in February 2013/ this chapter examines the different ways in which “Europe” as both an idea and an actor (or actors) features in the activities and discourses of LGBT activists in Kyrgyzstan. Given this small post-Soviet Central Asian republic’s location well beyond not only the borders of the EU, but also outside the scope of the Eastern Neighborhood Policy, it may seem somewhat odd to ask what role Europe plays in local LGBT activism. This is especially true considering that both international and domestic political dynamics seem to suggest that European influence in post-Soviet Central Asia is seriously constrained by competition from Russia and, increasingly, China in a “New Great Game” that is driven by the desire of all actors to gain access to resources and markets and maintain geopolitical strategic influence (Kim and Indeo 2013). However, as this chapter demonstrates, such thinking significantly underestimates Europe’s “normative power” (Manners 2002), even in light of the EU being a “[IJatecomer in Central Asia’s Great Game” (Delcour 2011: 91) and criticism of the EU’s Central Asia Strategy for being overly focused on strategic interests at the expense of commitment to the values of human rights and democracy (Boonstra and Hale 2010: 10; Melvin 2012; Youngs 2010).

‘You’re too much!’: experiencing the straightness of security

In October 2016, Alok Vaid-Menon, one member of New York-based ‘trans South Asian performance art duo’ DarkMatter,1 visited Melbourne, Australia. Over the course of their stay, they shared their th...

Introduction: queer/ing in/security

How can I tell you. How can I convince you, brother; sister that your life is in danger. That everyday you wake up alive, relatively happy, and a functioning human being, you are committing a rebellious act. You as an alive and functioning queer are a revolutionary. There is nothing on this planet that validates, protects or encourages your existence. It is a miracle you are standing here reading these words. You should by all rights be dead.