THE LGBTI MOVEMENT in CYPRUS Activism, Law, and Change Across the Divide
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ANALYSE DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS This report assesses the extent to which LGTBI people in both parts of Cyprus enjoy the rights to equality and non- THE LGBTI discrimination MOVEMENT The recognition of the LGBTI community as a legitimate political actor and the recognition of LGBTI rights IN CYPRUS has been a slow and difficult process on both sides of the Activism, Law, and Change Across the Divide divide. European Union (EU) Nayia Kamenou, Enver Ethemer, admission and its prospect, Costa Gavrielides and Okan Bullici as well as the ensuing Report 2019 Europeanisation and other transnationalisation processes have brought about changes in political opportunity structures DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS THE LGBTI MOVEMENT IN CYPRUS Activism, Law, and Change Across the Divide Contents I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 3 II. DECRIMINALISATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY IN CYPRUS ..................................................................... 4 Steps in the Republic of Cyprus .............................................. 4 Decriminalisation in the North – the Last European Territory to Decriminalise Homosexuality ................................................. 4 III. FORMATION OF THE CYPRIOT LGBTI CIVIL SOCIETY .................................................................... 6 South ........................................................................... 6 North. 7 IV. JOINING FORCES - COMMON WORK ....................... 9 December 2010: Solidarity and Networking Conference .................. 9 October 2012: ‘Towards Inclusion: Healthcare, Education and the LGBT Community’ ............................................................. 9 Cyprus Pride 2014. 10 Joint meetings and Events ....................................................10 Rainbow Meetings ............................................................10 October 2019: United By Colours ............................................10 V. CURRENT LEGAL FRAMEWORK ................................11 International Benchmark – ILGA-Europe Annual Rainbow Index .........11 Breakdown of Legal Rights in Each Side Based on ILGA-Europe Criteria .....11 1. Equality and Non-discrimination ..........................................11 2. Family ........................................................................12 3. Hate Crime & Hate Speech ................................................12 4. Legal Gender Recognition & Bodily Integrity .............................13 5. Civil Society Space ..........................................................13 6. Asylum ......................................................................14 1 FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – THE LGBTI MOVEMENT IN CYPRUS VI. NEXT STEPS FOR LGBTI EQUALITY ...........................15 1. Trans and Intersex Rights – Legal Gender Recognition ..................15 2. Trans and Intersex rights – Provision of Gender Reassignment Surgeries by the State ......................................................16 3. In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) ...................................................16 4. Marriage Equality ...........................................................16 5. Adoption ....................................................................16 6. Homophobic and Transphobic Hate Speech and Hate Crime ..........16 7. Employment ................................................................16 8. Forced ‘conversion therapy’ ...............................................17 9. Mental Health ..............................................................17 10. School and Education ....................................................17 11. Military Service ............................................................17 VII. FINAL REMARKS AND CONCLUSION ........................18 Annex I .........................................................................20 Annex II ........................................................................20 References .....................................................................21 About the auhors .............................................................23 2 Introduction I INTRODUCTION Following the end of the British rule of Cyprus in 1960, the to 173, remained the same without any amendments. Simi- recognition of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex larly, in the south, in relation to acts of same-sex sexual con- (LGBTI) community as a legitimate political actor and the rec- duct, the transplantation of the Labouchere Amendment to ognition of LGBTI rights has been a slow and difficult process the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 by the British colon- on both sides of the divide. The prevailing nationalist politics isers has been left intact until the late 1990s. that emphasised the Cyprus problem as an ethnic issue since the 1960s have hindered civil society mobilisation on other However, like elsewhere, in Cyprus, European Union (EU) ad- issues – including issues of sexuality and gender non-con- mission and its prospect, as well as the ensuing Europeanisa- formity – that have been rendered as less politically impor- tion and other transnationalisation processes have brought tant, if not as apolitical, when compared to the ‘Cyprus prob- about changes in political opportunity structures (Helfferich lem.’ Nationalistic discourses tend to enjoy more appeal in & Kolb, 2001; Marks & McAdam, 1999). These changes facil- postcolonial, ethnically divided, and conflict-ridden contexts, itated LGBTI mobilization across the island and the formation like Cyprus, where the stakes of a widely shared national of coalitions and joint actions between Greek-Cypriot and identity are particularly high. Cyprus’s historic turns – and the Turkish-Cypriot LGBTI organisations (Kamenou, 2011; Kame- British colonisers’ discourses that fuelled interethnic hatred nou, 2012; Kamenou, 2016; Kamenou, 2019a; Kamenou, and nationalism and, for the first time, delegitimised sexual 2020). and gender nonconformity on the island – have rendered heterocentrism and cisgenderism as the sine qua non of the ethnic communities’ unity against internal and external ene- mies, while heterocentrism and cisgenderism’s privileging has underpinned legal, political, social, economic, and cultur- al mechanisms of lives’ regulation and hierarchisation on both sides of the divide (Kamenou, 2011; Kamenou, 2012; Kamenou, 2016; Kamenou, 2019a; Kamenou, 2019b; Kamenou, 2020). Originally retained from the UK Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, within the Criminal Code (Chapter 154) that gov- erned the newly formed Republic of Cyprus (RoC), Articles 171 to 173 effectively criminalised and outlawed homosexu- ality and sexual acts between consenting males.1 Following the establishment of the Turkish Cypriot administration in 1975, the same criminal code was adopted without any changes into the Turkish Cypriot Criminal Code.2 In the Turk- ish Republic of Northern Cyprus3, Paragraph 154, Articles 171 1 See: Annex I. 2 See: Annex II 3 The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is only recognised by the Republic of Turkey. While for Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots, Mustafa Akinci serves as President of the TRNC, the international community considers him the communal leader of the Turkish Cyp- riots. As the government of the Republic of Cyprus remains interna- tionally recognised as the government of the whole of the island, the entire island is now considered to be a member of the European Un- ion. However, the acquis communautaire is suspended in north Cy- prus pending a political settlement to the Cyprus problem (see Proto- col no. 10 of the Accession Treaty). 3 FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – THE LGBTI MOVEMENT IN CYPRUS II DECRIMINALISATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY IN CYPRUS STEPS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS had to wait until they were 18 to remain within the law (Evripidou, 2013; Kamenou, 2011; Kamenou, 2012; Kame- In the early 1980s, Alecos Modinos, a Greek-Cypriot gay nou, 2016). rights activist decided to challenge the discriminatory Cypriot Criminal Code section. Due to the priority given to resolving the Cyprus problem, and the LGBTI-hostile environment that DECRIMINALISATION IN THE NORTH – impeded collective mobilisation, Modinos lobbied for the de- THE LAST EUROPEAN TERRITORY TO criminalisation of same-sex sexual conduct, but to no avail. DECRIMINALISE HOMOSEXUALITY Since no political party was willing to support his cause, on 25 May 1989, employing the right to individual petition af- In the area under Turkish Cypriot administration in the north forded by Article 25 of the pre-1998 version of the European of the island, change took even longer to come. Same-sex Convention on Human Rights (EConvHR), Modinos filed an sexual conduct was not decriminalised until 2014, making application to the European Commission of Human Rights the northern part of Cyprus the last piece of European soil claiming that the maintenance in force of provisions of the where homosexuality was legally defined as ‘unnatural licen- Criminal Code of the Republic of Cyprus that criminalised tiousness’, and ‘sodomy’ was penalised with imprisonment. private homosexual relations constituted an unjustified inter- ference with his right to respect for private life under Article The dynamics created when the Republic of Cyprus started to 8 of the Convention. Subsequently, the Commission referred formally negotiate its accession into the European Union in the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), March 1998, with a prospect of joining in 2004, also created which led to a ruling on 22 April 1993 in favour