Submitted by: Liberal Democrats (UK)

The Executive Committee of Liberal International (LI), convening in Johannesburg, South Africa, recognises that:

over recent months, the allegations of treatment of LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex, a.o.) people in Chechnya and the words reported and given in interviews by the Chechnya President highlight a situation which the world needs to act immediately to stop;

Chechnya’s President’s recent dismissive televised statement that LGBT+ Chechens do not exist lends credence to the allegations that the probable objective of his campaign of violence against gay men is part of a concerted effort to ensure there are no LGBT+ people in Chechnya;

Recent threatening actions towards LGBT+ activists, including the recent arrest of the prominent Italian LGBT+ activist, Yuri Guaiana, in Russia, underline the way the Chechen and Russian governments continue to reject LGBT+ lifestyles and people, even going as far as to create new laws preventing any understanding of LGBT+ people and lifestyles;

The disturbing growth in the number of reportedly deliberate kidnappings of innocent LGBT+ people as reported in the New York Times in July. More than 40 Chechens are currently living in undercover dwellings organised by Russian LGBT+ activists;

That in April, thousands of LGBT+ activists and allies protested outside the Russian embassy in London with the reports of a purge of gay men in Chechnya supported by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. These protests have been summarily ignored by the Chechen and Russian governments, despite international attention being paid

Therefore, the Executive Committee calls for:

Chechnya’s President to be internationally condemned for his uncompromising discrimination and the human rights violations of gay men in Chechnya

LI member parties to unreservedly admonish Chechen authorities and pressure the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the situation immediately

The LI Human Rights Committee to immediately take up the cause of the plight of gay men in Chechnya and intervene to raise awareness internationally of their increasingly dangerous situation