Event: Green MEP to speak at Brighton 'Communities Against Hate event'
Place: Brighton Seafront, next to the Volks railway and 'Peter Pan's playground
Time: Saturday 17 May 2008, 7pm

GREEN MEP Caroline Lucas will call on world leaders to renew efforts to secure the protection of all human rights worldwide at a speech to mark 'IDAHOBIT' (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia) in Brighton on Saturday.

Speaking in the wake of an EU climbdown over outlawing homophobia and ageism, and news that police in Moldova have turned a blind eye to harassment at a Moldova Pride march on Saturday, Dr Lucas said there was increasing evidence that universal human rights were being eroded in the face of international appeasement of conservative regimes.

“We developed a near-universal system of global human rights protection in the 20th Century, a legal regime designed to stamp out discrimination and harassment – but in the first decade of this century we have seen that system repeatedly undermined,”

“There remain 77 countries around the world where the ‘crime’ of being homosexual is still punishable by imprisonment, or even execution, and this is a direct affront to international human rights law.

“The theme for this year's event is 'women' – and we mustn't forget that it is often lesbian and bisexual women who are bearing the brunt of this state-sponsored discrimination, with the full knowledge and complicity of the British government. Take lesbian Pegah Emambakhsh, for example, who the Home Office wants to deport to Iran, where she faces arrest and possibly stoning to death for her sexual orientation.

“It's sadly no surprise that some of the world's most conservative regimes, like those in Iran, China and Eastern Europe, continue to harass, abuse and discriminate against their citizens on the basis of their sexuality. But that our government here in the UK isn't challenging this daily is unacceptable.

“It's time for a renewed campaign to persuade our government to take human rights seriously – and to make fighting to stamp out all forms of discrimination a bedrock of British foreign policy.”

“I am delighted to be able to mark another IDAHO at an event here in Brighton, and to celebrate diversity with one of the most vibrant LGBT communities in the world right here in my South-East England constituency.”

Alongside Dr Lucas, the rally will be addressed by Michelle Bridgeman of the Gender Trust and Melvin Hartley of Broken Rainbow. There will music from the City of Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus and the Rainbow Chorus, and a visually spectacular display of 77 stunning sky lanterns, one for every nation in which homosexuality remains a criminal offence.