In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stating every human being's right of equality in dignity and right. However, notwithstanding recognition by the international community of its importance and codification in numerous national and sub-national constitutions and legislation, reinforced by various multilateral and regional human rights treaties, the right of equality continues to be unable to take complete firm hold in all regions and countries. Evidence, as presented by the insightful papers in this collection, published initially as a Special Double Issue of The International Journal of Human Rights dedicated to exploring the place of equality in Asia-Pacific societies, suggests that although progress is being made the right of equality has not yet fully materialized, both in law and in reality, in the world's most populous region. Many factors, particularly entrenched cultural heritage and practices, the lingering effects of colonialism and newly found independence, and, above all, pervasive ignorance and prejudices, continue to impede the recognition, development and protection of equality in this region. Of course, equality, a normative right and entitlement by virtue of our humanity, has neither been fully achieved in societies outside the region. Such neo-colonial thinking in fact perpetuates and assists in the subjugation of the right of equality in the Asia-Pacific Region as a matter of relevance and concern only to Western countries. Accordingly, we hope that our discussions will also be able to shed light and generate reflections on realities outside the region as interlinked with our aim. The Editor's book fee has been donated to the UNICEF Tsunami Fund. This book was previously published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Rights.

The Stonewall Riot in New York in 1969 marked the birth of the sexual minority rights movement worldwide. In the subsequent four decades, equality and related rights on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity have been enshrined in many African, Asian, Australasian, European and North American countries, thanks to better informed discourses of the natures of sexual orientation, gender identity, equality and rights that systematic scientific and socio-legal research has generated.

Discrimination, harassment and persecution on grounds of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, however, continue to pervade the laws and social norms in all developed and developing countries. In tribute to the courage of those who participated in the Stonewall Riot, this book examines the progress and stalemate in various countries on five continents, as well as in the development of international law, concerning the rights of persons belonging to sexual minorities. This book covers issues including homophobic bullying and gay-straight alliances in schools; the merits and problems that legislation prohibiting hate speech on grounds of sexual orientation presents; criminal justice systems in relation to male rape victims and to criminalisation of HIV exposure and transmission; the development of sexual minority rights, from historical and socio-legal perspectives, in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Zimbabwe; the lives of transgender persons in Asian countries; the evolution, operation and impact of international and domestic refugee laws on sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for refugee status and asylum; and the conflicts between law, religion and sexual minority equality rights that inhere in the same-sex marriage debate in Ireland.

This book was previously published as a special double issue of The International Journal of Human Rights.

The Stonewall Riot in New York in 1969 marked the birth of the sexual minority rights movement worldwide. In the subsequent four decades, equality and related rights on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity have been enshrined in many African, Asian, Australasian, European and North American countries, thanks to better informed discourses of the natures of sexual orientation, gender identity, equality and rights that systematic scientific and socio-legal research has generated. Discrimination, harassment and persecution on grounds of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, however, continue to pervade the laws and social norms in all developed and developing countries. In tribute to the courage of those who participated in the Stonewall Riot, this book examines the progress and stalemate in various countries on five continents, as well as in the development of international law, concerning the rights of persons belonging to sexual minorities. This book covers issues including homophobic bullying and gay-straight alliances in schools; the merits and problems that legislation prohibiting hate speech on grounds of sexual orientation presents; criminal justice systems in relation to male rape victims and to criminalisation of HIV exposure and transmission; the development of sexual minority rights, from historical and socio-legal perspectives, in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Zimbabwe; the lives of transgender persons in Asian countries; the evolution, operation and impact of international and domestic refugee laws on sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for refugee status and asylum; and the conflicts between law, religion and sexual minority equality rights that inhere in the same-sex marriage debate in Ireland. This book was previously published as a special double issue of The International Journal of Human Rights.