Purpose
Sources
Accuracy and updating of the information
Scope
How to use the World Survey
The Future

Purpose

From its inception in 1978 ILGA has always attached great importance to the sharing of information about LGBT rights. This World Survey is firmly grounded in this tradition. It is primarily intended as a resource for those working to promote LGBT rights, whether they be activists, lawyers, people working in the media, or academics.

The benefits of sharing information are numerous. For example:

• the facts about positive developments in other countries -- whether the elimination of discrimination in the criminal law, or the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation or partnership rights -- can be of great value to those arguing for similar developments in their own countries, or taking test cases through the courts;
• the facts about the extent of persecution and discrimination across the world provide material for those who are trying to persuade international institutions to take up LGBT rights or friendly governments to make them part of their foreign policy activities; they can act as an encouragement to individuals and organisations to support LGBT communities in other countries;
• the successes, the courage, the tenacity of individuals and organisations fighting for LGBT rights around the world can be a real source of inspiration and motivation to others;
• for many individuals, whether refugees, or in a partnership with a foreign national, or considering whether to undertake a work assignment in a particular country, information about a specific country can be of great value.

Sources

This World Survey is a natural extension of the pioneering work carried out between the early Eighties and the early Nineties by the authors of the three ILGA Pink Books, published in 1985, 1988, and 1993.

We are immensely indebted to these individuals and organisations. The scope of this World Survey greatly exceeds that of earlier versions. That this is possible is almost entirely due to the range of sources now available, and to the efforts of these individuals and organisations.

Accuracy and updating of the information

In the interests of accuracy we have tried, wherever possible, to quote original texts, whether of legislation, of court judgments or of news stories. However considerable difficulties exist:

• often the source information is provided in very summarised form, leading to considerable uncertainty about its meaning;
• apparently reliable information (even from expert or government sources) can subsequently turn out to be incorrect, or overtaken by later events;
• differing legal and political traditions, together with the difficulties of translation, can be further sources of inaccuracy;

For these reasons users of the information should consider carefully the texts and their source (which we have always tried to indicate) and be aware that they may not be correct.

It is clearly very important that the quality of the information in the World Survey is improved and kept up-to-date. We very much hope therefore that LGBT activists and legal experts from around world will join with ILGA in correcting and updating this information. We particularly hope that expert individuals or organisations will take responsibility for checking and updating the information for a particular country. All such contributions will be acknowledged. We also hope that individuals who are aware of useful web based information not already "linked" should advise us.

Scope

The survey covers all the main areas of law of concern to LGBT people: sexual offences law, freedom of association and expression, anti-discrimination legislation, employment protection, partnership, parenting, laws affecting transgendered people, and the human rights aspects of HIV/AIDS. We have also included general comments on the situation in a particular country, and a section covering police harassment, street violence and assaults on LGBT activists.

In the interest of simplicity a common page format is used for all countries. The drawback to this is that many sections will, inevitably, be irrelevant to a particular country at the present time.

The type of information which, ideally, should be included in each section of a World Survey page can be found in the page Section Content Definitions

How to use the World Survey

There are three main ways to approach the information contained in the World Survey:

• By country (arranged in five geographical regions, Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, The Americas)
• By summaries covering some 50 areas of key information by country (e.g. countries in which same-sex relations are illegal, countries with antidiscrimination laws, etc)
• By a list of subject specific resources and useful reference documents and by a list of general resources and references

The Future

This first version of the ILGA World Survey is just a start. It is deficient in many ways: the problems with accuracy have already been discussed; the scope and presentation can be improved; the documentation of  many subjects (e.g. transgendered issues, and parenting) and of many countries falls far short of what we would wish. Indeed, as far as countries are concerned, there is one particularly vast gap: the USA, which, partly because of the scale of the work, and partly because it is already so well documented on the WWW, we have left for completion at a later stage. 

Despite these deficiencies, we believe it worth publishing the World Survey as it is now: because its real value to campaigns around the world will come once LGBT activists have an opportunity to see it, and to contribute, both with information, and with ideas as to how the World Survey can be made more useful to them in their work.