Same-sex sexual activity legal since 1993 for consenting men and not criminalised for women.[1] "Promotion" of LGBT identity illegal since 2013 (homosexuality) and 2022 (trans identity)
Since March 2017, a violent crackdown on the LGBT community led to the abduction and detention of gay and bisexual men, who were beaten and tortured.[7][8] More than one hundred men, and possibly several hundred men, were targeted.[7] At least three,[9] and reportedly as many as 20, were beaten to death.[10] The precise number of those detained and killed is unknown.[8] A panel of expert advisors to the United Nations Human Rights Council reported in early April 2017 that: "These are acts of persecution and violence on an unprecedented scale in the region and constitute serious violations of the obligations of the Russian Federation under international human rights law."[8]
Cultural aspects
Chechnya is a highly conservative Islamic society in which homophobia is widespread and homosexuality is taboo.[7] Following two separatist armed conflicts in the 1990s—the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War—Chechnya "became increasingly conservative" under the leadership of President Akhmad Kadyrov and his son Ramzan Kadyrov, who is the head of the Chechen Republic.[9] In Chechnya, as in other southern Russia regions, Russian President Vladimir Putin "has empowered local leaders to enforce their interpretation of traditional Muslim values."[8]Human Rights Watch reported in 2017 that "[i]t is difficult to overstate just how vulnerable LGBT people are in Chechnya, where homophobia is intense and rampant. LGBT people are in danger not only of persecution by the authorities but also of falling victim to 'honour killings' by their own relatives for tarnishing family honor."[11] An activist for the Russian LGBT Network stated that people are sometimes released from prisons due to the authorities knowing that they will be killed by their families.[12][bettersourceneeded] Kadyrov has even argued that there are no gay people in Chechnya and that even if there are any, then "take them to Canada, praise Allah, to cleanse the blood".[13]
Homosexuality was first made illegal in Chechnya after Russia conquered it in the late 1800s. After the October Revolution, all of Russia legalized homosexuality again, but it was re-criminalized under Joseph Stalin for the whole Soviet Union. Homosexuality was relegalized in Russia once more in 1993,[14] although between 1991 and 2000 Chechnya was de facto independent from Russia. In 1999, as a concession to radical Islamists, Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov introduced sharia law. The sharia courts that were established sentenced people to death for crimes such as adultery and homosexuality.[15]
Current Russian-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov "has brought Islam to the fore of Chechnya's daily life, and gay people who reveal their sexuality are often discriminated against and shunned by their families."[16] Ramzan Kadyrov began his "virtue campaign" social policy while he was still prime minister, in 2006, attacking first the "immorality" of the Republic's young women and introducing the policy of encouragement for honor killings,[17] with Kadyrov's perceived role as the defender of "traditional" gender roles ultimately extending to the anti-LGBT campaign.[18][19]
Although many Chechens, especially Chechens who live in more urban areas, anonymously continue to inform news agencies that they privately oppose Kadyrov's social policies on matters such as forced reunions of divorcees[20] and the new pressures to wear the hijab (which clashes with the traditional Chechen code on female attire, which stipulated that women should wear a narrow headband rather than a full hair-concealing hijab[21]) and the "raising of a whole generation of religious extremists", dissent puts an individual and their family in immediate danger.[22][23] In education as well as in other aspects of people's lives, state-run organizations have used their resources to disseminate propaganda which promotes Kadyrov's Islamization campaign; women who are perceived as being "immodestly" dressed are attacked with paintballs, and young schoolboys are informed that if they allow their sisters to go out without covering their hair, they will face eternal damnation, and they are also encouraged to report their parents to the authorities so the authorities will be able to determine if their parents are sufficiently or insufficiently practicing Islam at home.[22][23] Although Kadyrov's imposition of Islamic law contradicts wider Russian Federation law as well as an article of the Chechnyan constitution which explicitly states that Chechnya is secular and no religion can be made official or mandatory,[24] he does so with the monetary and political support of Putin, for which Russia has come under criticism by human rights groups.[25][26][27]
Russia officially passed an anti-gay propaganda law in June 2013. It officially bans the distribution of "propaganda for nontraditional sexual relationships", among children. The law has been criticized by several human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, because they consider it "openly discriminatory" against the LGBT population[28] and has been cited as one of the reasons that the Kremlin has not responded fast enough to the persecution of gay people in Chechnya.[29][30]
Demonstrations in Geneva against Chechen LGBT persecution, June 2017
The detentions began in February 2017 after a Chechen man who had allegedly committed a drug-related offense was stopped by police[31][32] and arresting officers discovered contact information for other gay men on his phone.[33]
A second wave of detentions began after the LGBT rights organization Gayrussia.ru applied for permits to hold gay pride parades in four cities within Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region, although not within Chechnya itself. The application in this district was denied by the Kabardino-Balkar authorities. An anti-gay demonstration followed, along with posts on social media calling for gay people to be murdered by various methods.[34]
Gayrussia.ru organizer Nikolay Alexeyev dismissed suggestions that attempts to organize pride parades in the region had sparked the violence against gay Chechens as speculative and unfounded.[35] The organization had not focused on the Muslim districts in particular, and it had applied for permits for gay pride parades in 90 municipal governments all across Russia in an attempt to collect the inevitable denials, which would be used in a case about freedom of assembly and gay rights before the European Court of Human Rights.[34]
Human rights observers reported that law enforcement across Chechnya began rounding up, imprisoning and torturing gay men, with at least three deaths reported by Human Rights Watch.[12][bettersourceneeded] An April 2017 article by Novaya Gazeta stated that more than 100 men were rounded up by police under suspicion of being gay and three were killed.[16][36][37] On 7 April the US State Department stated that it had "numerous credible reports indicating the detention of at least 100 men on the basis of their sexual orientation".[38] A spokesman for Chechnya's political leader denied the report, claiming that there are no homosexuals within their borders as "their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return", thus there could not have been any persecution of homosexuals by law enforcement.[36][37] However, the International Crisis Group said they had received corrobating information.[39] According to Novaya Gazeta, reports verified by the Russian LGBT Network, gay men were held at a secret prison in Argun, described in many sources as a concentration camp, where they were subjected to violence and torture.[40][41] Chechen men who were detained in multiple detention centers report being beaten and tortured with electric shocks.[7]
In a report issued on 13 April 2017, a panel of five expert advisors to the United Nations Human Rights Council—Vitit Muntarbhorn, Sètondji Roland Adjovi; Agnès Callamard; Nils Melzer; and David Kaye—condemned the wave of torture and killings of gay men in Chechnya. The panel wrote: "These are acts of persecution and violence on an unprecedented scale in the region and constitute serious violations of the obligations of the Russian Federation under international human rights law."[8][42] The panel wrote:
We urge the authorities to put an end to the persecution of people perceived to be gay or bisexual in the Chechen Republic who are living in a climate of fear fuelled by homophobic speeches by local authorities. It is crucial that reports of abductions, unlawful detentions, torture, beatings and killings of men perceived to be gay or bisexual are investigated thoroughly.[42]
300 Israeli gay men shaped as a "Pink triangle" supporting the gay prisoners in Chechnya
On 12 April 2017, a protest attended by hundreds was held outside the Embassy of Russia in London, U.K.[47]
On 15 April, Chechnya's press minister Dzhambulat Umarov demanded that Novaya Gazeta "apologize to the Chechen people" for suggesting LGBT people existed in the republic, and that if the paper did not stop publishing "hysteria" about "non-existent threats", then other people would "take care of them". This came after an 3 April speech to a crowd by Kadyrov calling the paper "enemies of our faith and of our motherland", with the crowd adopting a resolution of retribution against the journalists "wherever they are and without statute of limitations."[48]
On 5 May 2017, a protest attended by hundreds was held outside the Embassy of RussiaTel Aviv,[51] Israel. Later that day, 300 gay men stood in the shape of a pink triangle at Hilton Beach as a reminder of the Nazi concentration camp badges that were used to identify male prisoners accused of being gay.
On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed an inquiry into a reported crackdown on gay people in the republic of Chechnya, in the North Caucasus.[52]
On 11 May 2017, police arrested five activists in Moscow while attempting to deliver a petition to Moscow prosecutors.[53][54]
Several Chechen citizens have spoken out about their detention and torture, fleeing the region for other parts of Russia and to safe-houses provided by LGBT activists.[55]
On 16 May 2017, LGBT activist groups in France reported that they had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Ramzan Kadyrov.[56] Though Putin has formally withdrawn Russia as a signatory to the Rome Statute,[57] the complaint notes that the court still has a mandate to investigate until November 2017.[58]
Numerous national leaders and other public figures in the West condemned Chechnya's actions, and protests were held in Russia and elsewhere. A report released in December 2018 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confirmed claims that persecution of LGBT persons had taken place and was ignored by authorities.[27][59]
On 11 January 2019, it was reported that another 'gay purge' had begun in the country in December 2018, with several gay men and women being detained.[60][61][62][63] The Russian LGBT Network believes that around 40 persons were detained and two killed.[64][65]
On 6 March 2019, feminist protest punk rock band Pussy Riot held a demonstration on the steps of South Australia's Parliament, calling on the Australian government to offer asylum to the persecuted gay people of Chechnya. Pussy Riot band member Masha Alyokhina told reporters:[66]
Just in January this year, 40 people were arrested and at least two of them were killed. And this is just the beginning of this year... It's not just about one or two presidents … it's a so-called tradition of Chechnya to kill people who are gay and lesbian... part of the tradition of Chechen people is to kill those women who has so-called 'immoral being', and immoral being is for example to have a divorce, or to have a short skirt and so on...So we are here because we want to stop it, and we want the world to know what is going on in our country.
In May 2019, Human Rights Watch reported that Chechnya police have renewed its crackdown on LGBT people. Allegedly, police have started using unlawful detentions, beatings, and humiliation of men they presume to be gay or bisexual.[67]
EU's Sanctions
In March 2021, Reuters reported that the EU has put immediate sanctions on two government officials working in Chechnya due to ongoing government sponsored and backed violence against LGBTQIA+ individuals.[68]
Summary table
Same-sex sexual activity legal
Illegal since 1996 (Penalty: De facto punishment since 2017 includes Imprisonment, corporal punishment, and execution)
Equal age of consent (16)
Anti-discrimination laws in employment only
Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services
Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech)
Same-sex marriages
Recognition of same-sex couples
Stepchild adoption by same-sex couples
Joint adoption by same-sex couples
LGBT people allowed to serve openly in the military
Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov is a Russian politician and current Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated with the Chechen independence movement, through his father who was the separatist-appointed mufti of Chechnya. He is a colonel general in the Russian military.
Russia has consistently been criticized by international organizations and independent domestic media outlets for human rights violations. Some of the most commonly cited violations include deaths in custody, the systemic and widespread use of torture by security forces and prison guards, the existence of hazing rituals within the Russian Army —referred to as dedovshchina — as well as prevalent breaches of children's rights, instances of violence and prejudice against ethnic minorities, and the targeted killings of journalists.
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005).
Suleiman Bekmirzayevich Yamadayev was a Chechen rebel commander from the First Chechen War who had switched sides together with his brothers Dzhabrail, Badrudi, Isa and Ruslan in 1999 during the outbreak of the Second Chechen War. He was the commander of the Russian military Special Battalion Vostok unit belonging to the GRU. As such, until 2008, he was officially in command of the biggest pro-Moscow militia outside the control of the current Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov. From 1 to 22 August 2008 Yamadayev was wanted in Russia on a federal warrant. Nevertheless, he served as one of the Russian military commanders in Russia's war with Georgia during the same period.
Black sites are clandestine detention centers operated by a state where prisoners who have not been charged with a crime are incarcerated without due process or court order, are often mistreated and murdered, and have no recourse to bail.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Russia face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Although sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex is legal, homosexuality is disapproved of by most of the population and pro-LGBT advocacy groups are deemed "extremist" and banned. It is illegal for individuals to "promote homosexuality" and same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are ineligible for the legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Russia provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people and does not have a designation for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Transgender people are not allowed to change their legal gender and all gender-affirming care is banned. There are currently no laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression, and recent laws could be used to discriminate against transgender residents.
The 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the Kadyrovites and the Akhmat special forces unit, is a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia. As of 2023, the regiment's official commander was Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov.
The Republic of Chechnya is a constituent republic and federal subject of the Russian Federation. It is located in the Caucasus region in southwest Russia. It is the political successor of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. From a centralized form of government during the existence of the Soviet Union, the republic's political system went upheavals during the 1990s with the establishment of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, leading to the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War which left the republic in total devastation. In 2000, following Russia's renewed rule, a local, republican form of government was established in the republic under the control of the Russian federal government.
Since the start of the Second Chechen War in 1999, Russian federal authorities are alleged to have implemented a plan to use legal and extralegal methods to limit media access to the conflict region.
Adam Sultanovich Delimkhanov is a Russian politician who has been a member of the State Duma since 2007. He is a member of the ruling United Russia party. He is the head of the Chechen branch of the Russian National Guard.
The Russian LGBT Network is a non-governmental LGBT rights organization working for the social acceptance of and protection of the rights of LGBT people in Russia. Founded in 2006, it was reformed into the first Russian inter-regional LGBT rights organization on October 19, 2008. The organization is a member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and is led by Russian LGBT rights activist Igor Kochetkov.
Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organization Memorial. Estemirova was abducted by unknown persons on 15 July 2009 around 8:30 a.m. from her home in Grozny, Chechnya, as she was working on "extremely sensitive" cases of human rights abuses in Chechnya. Two witnesses reported they saw Estemirova being pushed into a car shouting that she was being abducted. Her remains were found with bullet wounds in the head and chest area at 4:30 p.m. in woodland 100 metres (330 ft) away from the federal road "Kavkaz" near the village of Gazi-Yurt, Ingushetia.
Chernokozovo detention center is a prison in the village of Chernokozovo, Chechnya, Russia. The detention center is operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and currently has the status of penal colony.
Magomed Hozhakhmedovich Daudov is a Russian statesman, politician and military commander, who is currently serving as the Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic since May 2024.
Anti-gay purges in Chechnya, a part of the Russian Federation, have included forced disappearances, secret abductions, imprisonment, torture and extrajudicial killing by authorities targeting persons based on their perceived sexual orientation, primarily gay men. At least 2 of the 100 people, whom authorities detained on suspicion of being gay or bisexual, have reportedly died after being held in what human rights groups and eyewitnesses have called concentration camps.
Zelimkhan Khoussainovich Bakaev was a Chechen singer. He disappeared in Chechnya on 8 August 2017, while on a brief visit to the region to attend his sister's wedding. He is widely believed to have been abducted, tortured, and murdered by the Chechen authorities as part of their systematic persecution of homosexual men.
The Yangulbaev case is a socio-political scandal that erupted in Russia in early 2022. Lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Abubakar Yangulbaev announced the disappearance of several dozen of his relatives in Chechnya. After that, the Chechen security forces forcibly took his mother Zarema Musayeva from Nizhny Novgorod to Grozny, where she became a defendant in a criminal case and was sent to a pre-trial detention center. Abubakar's brother, Ibragim, was put on the federal wanted list, his father and sister hastily left Russia. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that members of the Yangulbaev family should be detained and punished, “and if they resist, then they should be destroyed as accomplices of terrorists”; he later demanded from foreign governments that the fugitives be returned to Chechnya.
The Chechen Republic, commonly known as Chechnya, is a federal republic of Russia that has been noted in several roles during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kadyrovite forces have fought alongside the Russian forces, while several Chechen armed volunteer formations are fighting on the Ukrainian side. International observers have noted a number of comparisons between the invasion and the First and Second Chechen Wars.
Magomed Salaudinovich Tushayev is a Russian Lieutenant Colonel and advisor to the Head of the Chechen Republic. He is a commander of the 141st Special Motorized Regiment (Kadyrovites).
↑ Milashina, Elena (1 April 2017). "Murder of honor: the ambitions of a well-known LGBT activist awake a terrible ancient custom in Chechnya". Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2017. "Novaya Gazeta" became aware of mass detentions of residents of Chechnya in connection with their unconventional sexual orientation – or suspicion of such. At the moment, more than a hundred men have been informed of the detention. "Novaya Gazeta" knows the names of the three dead, but our sources say that there are many more victims.
↑ Kramer, Andrew E. (3 March 2020). "Putin Proposes Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2020. By including an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, "they are reinventing the vote as a referendum for traditional values," said Ekaterina Schulmann, a Moscow-based political scientist.
↑ Adoption is regulated by the Civil Procedure Code of Russia (Chapter 29); Family Code of Russia (Chapter 19); Federal Law On Acts of Civil Status (Chapter V). None of these documents contain any direct restriction or ban for homosexual people to adopt, though unmarried couples are not allowed to adopt children (Article 127.2 of the Family Code of Russia), and since same-sex marriage is not officially recognized, gay couples cannot adopt children together; nevertheless, single individuals can adopt (see also the Parent Relations section of the Russian LGBT Network 2009 Report). The Court makes the decision to allow or deny adoption considering many documents and testimonies, so it is unclear whether LGBTQ affiliation of the candidate adopter can be in fact an issue for a judge to make a negative decision.
↑ Ware, Robert Bruce (2005). "A Multitude of Evils: Mythology and Political Failure in Chechnya". In Richard Sakwa (ed.). Chechnya: From Past to Future. Anthem Press. pp.79–115. ISBN978-1-84331-164-5.
1 2 Osborne, Samuel (7 April 2017). "Gay men being tortured and murdered in Chechen prisons, claim detainees". The Independent. Retrieved 10 April 2017. He has brought Islam to the fore of Chechnya's daily life, and gay people who reveal their sexuality are often discriminated against and shunned by their families.
↑ ""You Dress According to Their Rules"". Human Rights Watch. 10 March 2011. Finally, Article 11 of the Constitution of the Chechen Republic, in full compliance with Russia's Basic Law, maintains that "the Chechen Republic is a secular state. No religion can be made a state religion or a mandatory one".
↑ Milashina, Elena (1 April 2017). "Murder of honor: the ambitions of a well-known LGBT activist awake a terrible ancient custom in Chechnya". Retrieved 14 April 2017. "Novaya Gazeta" became aware of mass detentions of residents of Chechnya in connection with their unconventional sexual orientation – or suspicion of such. At the moment, more than a hundred men have been informed of the detention. "Novaya Gazeta" knows the names of the three dead, but our sources say that there are many more victims.
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