LGBT Refugees Letter To Clinton 2-4-10

United States Congress
For Immediate Release Contact:

Thursday, February 4, 2010 Bethany Lesser (Gillibrand) 202-224-3873
Jerilyn Goodman (Baldwin) 608-251-8737
GILLIBRAND, BALDWIN TO SEC. CLINTON:

SAVE LGBT REFUGEES
LGBT Individuals Tortured and Killed in Iraq in 2009
No Proper Investigations, No Arrests for Crimes Against LGBT Individuals in Iraq
Take Action to Enforce Human Rights Laws to Protect Members of the LGBT
Community in Countries Where Their Rights Are Abused.
Washington, D.C. – With hundreds of LGBT individuals being beaten, persecuted and
even killed in Iraq, Iran and other countries, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY),
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congresswoman Tammy
Baldwin (D-WI), joined by 11 of their Senate colleagues and 31 of their House
colleagues, today wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to work with U.S.
Ambassadors, the United Nations and NGOs across the globe to enforce human rights
laws that protect LGBT individuals in the countries where they are under threat. Where
safe conditions are not possible, the U.S. and the UN must work with refugee and human
rights groups to expedite refugees’ flight to safety.
According to Human Rights Watch, there is no official number of deaths since the killing
of LGBT individuals began in Iraq, but the U.N. has provided rough estimates range in
the hundreds in 2009 alone. Not one murder of an LGBT individual in Iraq has led to an
arrest, according to Human Rights Watch.
“It is time for us in Congress to take a strong stand against all hate crimes and
persecution – wherever they occur,” Senator Gillibrand said. “People in this world
should not have to suffer or fear for their lives because of who they are or what they
believe in. It is wrong and it must end. If Iraq, Iran and other countries are not
providing the legal protections that members of their LGBT communities are entitled to,
it is our duty to join with our partners in the international community, enforce the human
rights laws that protect us all, and free LGBT individuals from persecution. While the
ultimate goal is safe conditions in these countries, until that happens, the U.S., UN and
the international community must ensure that LGBT refugees can reach safety in
countries where they won’t face persecution”
“The lives of LGBT individuals in Iran and Iraq, as well as those LGBT refugees who
have fled persecution, are in grave danger,” said Congresswoman Baldwin, Co-Chair of
the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. “I know Secretary of State Clinton shares our
concerns for human rights and I hope she will use the full force of her office to respond to
the plight of Iraqi and Iranian LGBT refugees and urge the UNHRC to do the same,”
Congresswoman Baldwin said.
Gillibrand-Baldwin LGBT Refugees 2-4-10 Page 2
“Senator Gillibrand’s letter highlights the difficulty that foreign lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender (LGBT) refugees face when their home countries, and their countries of
first asylum, permit or condone discrimination and brutal attacks based on sexual
orientation or gender identity,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Secretary Clinton
has said that LGBT rights are human rights and we agree. We look forward to working
with the State Department and Senator Gillibrand to ensure that U.S. foreign policy
strongly supports protecting the human rights of LGBT individuals abroad.”
“Today, these Members of Congress have presented a comprehensive set of

recommendations that will help ensure the protection of individuals who flee persecution
based on their sexual orientation or gender identity only to face further persecution and
violence in the countries they have fled to in search of safe refuge,” said Human Rights
First’s Eleanor Acer. “We praise their leadership on this issue, and urge the
administration to implement these measures including a fast-track resettlement process
for individuals facing serious protection risks.”
Gideon Aronoff, President & CEO of HIAS said, ““Refugees who have fled
persecution on the basis of their sexuality are among the most vulnerable in the world, as
persecution often follows them across borders from one country to the next.
Additionally, in some parts of the world the LGBT population is at special risk because
of strong cultural mores that reject and demonize all but traditional male/female
relationships. For some, resettlement to the U. S. or another free country is the only life-
saving solution, but neither the U.S. Refugee Program nor the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) is adequately prepared to give LGBT refugees the access to
safety which they so desperately need. The Congressional letter organized by Sen.
Gillibrand to Secretary Clinton suggests sensible and concrete steps to save the lives of
LGBT refugees, and we urge the Department of State to give these
suggestions expeditious consideration.”
Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Baldwin’s letter to Secretary Clinton is below:
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State of the United States of America
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520-0099
Dear Madam Secretary,
We are writing to share our concerns about the safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) individuals in countries where these individuals’ health and lives are
threatened and governments provide inadequate protection. Our concern was sparked
most recently by accounts of LGBT individuals from Iraq and Iran who have had to flee
after being severely beaten or worse, or because they face a significant risk of such
persecution. Unfortunately, this situation is not unique to Iraq and Iran. LGBT
individuals in a number of other countries are also under threat. Moreover, we are
troubled by the fact that a number of countries criminalize or are taking steps to increase
penalties against the LGBT community.
We know you share our concern. We appreciate the attention that the United States
Government has paid to the special circumstances of people fleeing countries where they
face persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, particularly Iraq and
Iran. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, for example, has raised the unsolved attacks on gay
men with the Ministry of Interior and the Human Rights Ministry. While we value these
steps, we remain concerned about people’s safety in both these and other countries with
reports of persecution of LGBT individuals and/or groups. We are likewise very troubled
that LGBT refugees from Iraq and Iran and possibly other countries face risks in first
asylum countries where refugees often remain for years, and which are often nearly as
hostile to the LGBT community as their home countries.
Therefore we respectfully request you to consider several ways in which your leadership
and guidance would improve protection for LGBT individuals in both the countries
where they are targeted and the first asylum countries where their safety is in question.
1. United States Ambassadors in countries of concern should strongly and

consistently raise the fact that laws targeting homosexual activity and a lack of
protection for LGBT individuals or groups violate international human rights law.
2. United Nations and its appropriate agencies, such as the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights, should increase their promotion of the human
rights of LGBT individuals and ensure that appropriate programs are focused on
support of such individuals and groups.
3. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) should increase the
training of all of its employees, contractors and implementing partners following
its Guidance Note on Refugee Claims Relating to Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity. UNHCR should maximize its implementation of this important guidance
so that LGBT refugees are not disadvantaged by inappropriate conduct or
inadequate processing by UNHCR employees or implementing partners. It
appears that additional LGBT refugee protection tools would need to be
developed. As the largest donor, the U.S. could help foster an appropriate focus
on this issue.
4. Ffor LGBT individuals, such as those from Iran and Iraq, who face risks in the
countries of first asylum, as well as inside their home countries, resettlement
processing should be expedited. This can be done in a number of ways,
including:
a. Those LGBT refugees who can articulate a serious protection concern

because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in the country of first
asylum can be designated “refugees of special humanitarian concern” so
they are eligible for Priority 2, or direct processing to the U.S. refugee
admissions program. The United States already designated several groups
of at-risk U.S.-affiliated Iraqis as P2-eligible in 2007 and 2008, and has
used the designation for refugees from other countries in the past. We
appreciate that this category of direct-access eligibility is reserved for
some of the most at-risk groups and must be carefully crafted to identify a
discrete group.
b. Processing of LGBT refugee applications can be expedited by UNHCR or

the Department of State entering into agreements with qualified non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) to identify or screen refugees who
need to be taken immediately out of harm’s way. Those LGBT refugees
with serious protection concerns who are so identified by NGOs – or who
are otherwise known to UNHCR or the U.S. Government – should be “fast
tracked” by UNHCR or the State Department, as appropriate.
c. In appropriate cases, individuals might be moved by UNHCR to its
emergency transit centers (ETCs) in order to ensure their safety during
refugee processing. Our understanding is that such transit centers are
currently used to house populations whose safety cannot be guaranteed
while they are in refugee processing. If such centers are used to
temporarily house LGBT refugees, UNHCR would need to take steps to
ensure that the centers are sensitive to the protection needs of LGBT
individuals. In cases where evacuation to an ETC is not practicable, we
urge you to work with the Secretary of Homeland Security to
expeditiously parole or conditionally admit particularly vulnerable
refugees to the United States for processing, as the United States did with
applicants evacuated from northern Iraq in 1996 and Macedonia in 1999.
d. Finally, the U.S. agencies involved in the security clearance procedures
required as part of the refugee resettlement process should continue to
improve coordination in order to enable these procedures to be completed
in a timely manner.
Again, thank you for your attention to this matter. We would be very pleased to work
with you and support you in any way we can.
Sincerely,
Kirsten E. Gillibrand
United States Senator
Patrick J. Leahy
Daniel K. Akaka
Jeff Bingaman
Sherrod Brown
Robert P. Casey Jr.

Russell D. Feingold
Frank R. Lautenberg
Joseph L. Lieberman
Jeff Merkley
Charles E. Schumer
Ron Wyden
Tammy Baldwin
United States Representative
Jared Polis
Barney Frank
Jan Schakowsky
Jerrold Nadler
Michael M. Honda
Lois Capps
James P. Moran
Zoe Lofgren
David Wu
Edolphus Towns
Carolyn Maloney
Alcee Hastings
John Conyers
Luis Gutierrez
Bill Delahunt
Eliot Engel
Raúl M. Grijalva
Chellie Pingree
Joseph Crowley
Gary Ackerman
Anthony Weiner
Maurice Hinchey
Steven Rothman
James P. McGovern
Lynn Woolsey
Paul Tonko
Mike Quigley
Steve Israel
Howard Berman
Henry Waxman
Brad Sherman
###

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United States Congress

For Immediate Release Contact:

GILLIBRAND, BALDWIN TO SEC. CLINTON:

LGBT Individuals Tortured and Killed in Iraq in 2009

No Proper Investigations, No Arrests for Crimes Against LGBT Individuals in Iraq

“Today, these Members of Congress have presented a comprehensive set of

Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Baldwin’s letter to Secretary Clinton is below:

The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton

Dear Madam Secretary,

1. United States Ambassadors in countries of concern should strongly and

a. Those LGBT refugees who can articulate a serious protection concern

b. Processing of LGBT refugee applications can be expedited by UNHCR or

Robert P. Casey Jr.

United States Representative

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