THE Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) has launched a new report on “Guyana’s Voting Record and Responses on LGBT Human Rights Issues at International Fora” last Wednesday.

The launch was held at SASOD’s 203 Duncan Street, Lamaha Gardens’ office in Georgetown and according to Human Rights Coordinator Ernestine Leonard who delivered introductory remarks, the report was commissioned by SASOD and written by two Law graduates, Bryce Celestan and Samy Dorgham.

They worked under the tutelage of Professor Andrea Parra at the American University Washington College of Law.

The human rights coordinator also read the foreword of the report written by Ulele Burnham, British-Guyanese barrister at Doughty Chambers in London, United Kingdom, who specialises in mental health, mental capacity, human rights and equality law.

Leonard quoted Burnham who wrote, “whilst we wait to see whether the current administration will act less as neutral arbiter and more as custodian of citizens’ rights, this report is a startling reminder of just how little leadership, and how much inertia, successive governments have demonstrated in relation to this issue.”

More importantly, she pointed out, that the graduates collected invaluable data on Guyana’s voting record on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) issues before international bodies.

“Their analysis indicates that many of the international conventions which now require Guyana to take steps to repeal discriminatory laws and confer positive statuary rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons were ratified between 20 to 50 years ago… It is also difficult to see how it is possible to reduce discrimination against LGBT persons where same-sex sexual acts remain criminal offences,” Burnham’s Foreword states.

SASOD’s Managing Director, Joel Simpson, while presenting an overview of the report, recalled that Guyana voted to retract and defund the United Nations (UN) Independent Expert on Violence and Discrimination based on SOGI in December 2016.

Simpson related that this led SASOD to reach out to its international partners to commission this study.

“We were put in touch with Professor Andrea Parra who agreed to have two Juris Doctorate candidates at the time, over the last few months, conduct this research and analysis for us. We decided that we would cover 2008 to 2016, and look at both the UN and the Organisation of American States (OAS), wherever LGBT issues are discussed, how Guyana has been voting … or in the case of the UN human rights treaty bodies, how we’ve been responding to specific recommendations and concluding observations of those bodies on LGBT issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, Board Secretary Alana Da Silva shared another recent milestone of the rights group. On March 8 this year, SASOD Women’s Arm Guyana (SWAG) was launched to coincide with International Women’s Day.

Da Silva explained that it is the women-led, social justice arm of SASOD dedicated to the advancement and empowerment of lesbian, bisexual, transgender (LBT) women and women allies.