Press Release: UN Women and UNFPA condemn the brutal murder of Hande Kader and stand with the men and women of Turkey who work to end gender based violence

With reference to a statement issued by UN agencies in September 2015 UN Women and UNFPA in Turkey, condemn the brutal murder of Hande Kader and join in solidarity with the thousands of LGBTI people who brought the issue to national attention to say “NO” to hate crimes and violence against LGBTI and women.

Human rights are universal – cultural, religious and moral practices and beliefs and social attitudes cannot be invoked to justify human rights violations against any group, including LGBTI persons.

Everyone is entitled to the same fundamental human rights without discrimination or arbitrary restrictions of any kind, including the rights to life, liberty, physical integrity, privacy, equality before law, and freedom of expression. We recognize the considerable progress Turkey has made with regard to the legislation to combat violence against women and we call on the Turkish Government to take similar active measures to combat homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination. As we have condemned the murder of Özgecan Aslan, we are also condemning the murder of Hande Kader and other LGBTI people including Muhammad Wisam Sankari, a Syrian LGBTI refugee.

The UN is ready to support the efforts of the Government of Turkey to ensure that LGBTI people and survivors of crimes are treated with respect and dignity and have access to protection mechanisms and effective remedy. This includes publicly condemning violence and hate crimes against LGBTI people, ensuring that legislation on discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence explicitly includes sexual orientation and gender identity. It is also very crucial that authorities prevent impunity for the human rights violations through prompt, effective, independent and impartial investigations and prosecutions in line with fair trial norms and standards.

As Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of UN underlined, “when the human rights of LGBT people are abused, all of us are diminished. Every human life is precious – none is worth more than another”. Therefore, all members of society, can help to reach the goal of creating a society free from all forms of violence against LGBTI and women. Each and every one of us can help to challenge gender stereotypes and discrimination against all vulnerable groups, foremost LGBTI people who face the deadly forms of extreme discrimination.