An appeal to the United Kingdom Government and all the democratic institutions.
Pegah Emambakhsh (40) is a lesbian Iranian woman. She has been sentenced to death by the judges of the Islamic Republic of Iran because of her homosexuality. She took refuge in Sheffied, Great Britain, where she sought political asylum. This right was denied her for unconvincing reasons, among which the fact that she cannot prove she is a lesbian.
In Germany too, a young lesbian woman, Jasmine K. requested political asylum, but she too was turned down by the authorities for the same insubstantial reason: she cannot prove she is a lesbian.
The “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” protects those who are persecuted because of their diversity without them having to prove it. Homosexuality is a state that exists at the moment it is perceived or merely declared by a human being. Asking for proof of such inclination is a violation of human rights.
Even the State of Israel took in Jewish refugees from the Holocaust on the mere basis of their declarations. Many of them were without identification papers.
This is the only way to respect human rights. The alternative would be the humiliating demonstration of one’s sexual preferences, pointless clinical and psychological testing and inquisitorial procedures damaging to a person’s privacy and human dignity.
The EveryOne group firmly requests that Pegah Emambakhsh, Jasmine K and all the other people persecuted for their homosexuality be taken in as refugees by countries that consider themselves civilized and safeguarded from the effects of intolerance.
