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IntroductionThe male‐to‐female transgender (waria) is part of a key population at higher risk for HIV. This study aims to test whether psychosocial determinants as defined by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can explain behaviours related to condom use among waria. Three preparatory behaviours (getting, carrying, and offering a condom) and two condom use behaviours (during receptive and insertive anal sex) were assessed.MethodsThe study involved 209 waria, recruited from five districts in Jakarta and interviewed by using structured questionnaires. Specific measures were developed to study attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) in order to predict intentions and behaviours.ResultsThe explained variance between intentions with regard to three preparatory behaviours and two condom uses ranged between 30 and 57%, and the variance between the actual preparatory behaviours of three preparatory and two condom uses ranged between 21 and 42%. In our study, as with several previous studies of the TPB on HIV protection behaviours, the TPB variables differed in their predictive power. With regard to intention, attitude and PBC were consistently significant predictors; attitude was the strongest predictor of intention for all three preparatory behaviours, and PBC was the strongest predictor of intention for condom use, both during receptive and insertive anal sex. TPB variables were also significantly related to the second parameter of future behaviour: actual (past) behaviour. TPB variables were differentially related to the five behaviours. Attitude was predictive in three behaviours, PBC in three behaviours and subjective norms in two behaviours.ConclusionsOur results have implications for the development of interventions to target preparatory behaviours and condom use behaviours. Five behaviours and three psychological factors as defined in the TPB are to be targeted.

BACKGROUND: Despite high HIV prevalence rates among most-at-risk groups, utilisation of HIV testing, treatment and care services was relatively low in Karnataka prior to 2008. The authors aimed to understand the barriers to and identify potential solutions for improving HIV service utilisation. METHODS: Focus group discussions were carried out among homogeneous groups of female sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgenders, and programme peer educators in six districts across Karnataka in March and April 2008. RESULTS: 26 focus group discussions were conducted, involving 302 participants. Participants had good knowledge about HIV and HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services, but awareness of other HIV services was low. The fear of the psychological impact of a positive HIV test result and the perceived repercussions of being seen accessing HIV services were key personal and interpersonal barriers to HIV service utilisation. Previous experiences of discrimination at government healthcare services, coupled with discriminatory attitudes and behaviours by VCT staff, were key structural barriers to VCT service uptake among those who had not been HIV tested. Among those who had used government-managed prevention of parent to child transmission and antiretroviral treatment services, poor physical facilities, long waiting times, lack of available treatment, the need to give bribes to receive care and discriminatory attitudes of healthcare staff presented additional structural barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Embedding some HIV care services within existing programmes for vulnerable populations, as well as improving service quality at government facilities, are suggested to help overcome the multiple barriers to service utilisation. Increasing the uptake of HIV testing, treatment and care services is key to improving the quality and longevity of the lives of HIV-infected individuals.

We examine community collectivization among female sex workers (FSWs) and high-risk men who have sex with men and transgenders (HR-MSM) following several years of HIV prevention programming with these populations, and its association with selected outcome indicators measuring individual behaviors (condom use with different partners and sexually transmitted infection [STI] treatment-seeking from government health facilities). Data for this study were collected from a large-scale cross-sectional survey conducted in 2010-2011 among FSWs (sample size: 3557) and HR-MSM (sample size: 2399) in Andhra Pradesh, India. We measured collectivization among FSWs in terms of three binary (low, high) indices of collective efficacy, collective agency, and collective action. Collectivization among HR-MSM was measured by participation in a public event (no, yes), and a binary (low, high) index of collective efficacy. Adjusted odds ratios (adjusted OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed to assess the relationships between collectivization and outcome indicators directly and through mediation of variables such as self-efficacy for condom use and utilization of government health facilities. Results show that among FSWs, high levels of collective efficacy (adjusted OR: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1–1.7) and collective action (adjusted OR:1.3, 95% CI: 1.1–1.8) were associated with consistent condom use (CCU) with regular clients. Among HR-MSM, participation in a public event (adjusted OR: 2.7, 95% CI: 2.0–3.6) and collective efficacy (adjusted OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.5–2.3) were correlated with condom use with paying partners. The association between collectivization and outcome indicators continued to be significant in most cases even after adjusting for the potential mediators. Indicators of collectivization exhibited significant positive association with self-efficacy for condom use and service utilization from government health facilities among both FSWs and HR-MSM. The association of high levels of collectivization with CCU, STI ...

In 2010, a 14-year-old boy was brutally murdered in a suburb outside of Rio de Janeiro when a group of skinheads observed him at a party and suspected that he might be gay (McLoughlin 2011). This scale of horrific homophobia is not uncommon in Brazil, where rates of violence against gays, lesbians, and transgendered people are reported to be amongst the highest in the world. A study conducted with the support of Grupo Gay da Bahia offers the conservative estimate of 260 gays killed in the country in 2010, indicating that rates doubled in only 5 years. The statistic sits uncomfortably with the image of Brazil as a sexually tolerant society, where the legalization of homosexuality was established shortly after the nation's independence from Portugal. It was therefore with a great sense of achievement for proponents of gay rights that, in May 2011, the Brazil Supreme Court agreed to award same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals (BBC 2011). Though the decision stops short of approving marriage for same-sex couples, it has been heralded as an important step against discrimination and toward acknowledging the rights of gays, lesbians, and transgenders to love and live without the condemnation of the state. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights reserved.

This article addresses the issue of how the development of International Human Rights Law and other legal systems of states often times undermines the acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity that ultimately impacts on how minimum are the protection toward lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. More concretely, this article tries to explain this issue by using international human rights law instruments such as International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and other regional human rights convention such as European Convention on Human Rights and Inter-American Convention on Human Rights. Moreover, on the basis of comparison this article also uses various judicial decisions of several human rights judicial bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights and also judgments of several states' Supreme Court on cases regarding the rights of LGBT where states, in their legal and religious discourses, whether directly or indirectly, often put the LGBT people as their subject of discrimination, torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, and were not granted civil liberties such as freedom of expression and freedom of association. When emphasizing substantial differences among current states' policies and the international human rights law, this article also shows the current tendencies of states to include the LGBT people on rights that were once forbidden for the LGBT people to obtain, such as the right to adopt, right to have same-sex marriage, and right to change their biological sex by the use of medical examinations, and so on. Keywords: LGBT, homosexuality, human rights, ICCPR ABSTRAK Artikel skripsi ini membahas mengenai bagaimana perkembangan hukum hak asasi manusia (HAM) internasional dan sistem hukum di banyak Negara seringkali tidak sejalan dalam hal penerimaan orientasi seksual dan identitas gender yang pada akhirnya berdampak pada minimnya perlindungan terhadap kaum Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, dan Transgender. Dalam artikel ini selanjutnya menggunakan instrumen-instrumen hukum HAM internasional seperti International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, dan berbagai konvensi HAM regional seperti European Convention on Human Rights dan Inter-American Convention on Human Rights. Selain itu, digunakan pula putusan peradilan dari beberapa badan peradilan HAM seperti European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights dan putusan dari Mahkamah Agung berbagai Negara sebagai perbandingan praktek-praktek hukum dan tradisi agama dalam suatu Negara, baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung yang meletakkan kaum LGBT sebagai korban diskriminasi, penyiksaan dan perbuatan kejam lainnya, ditahan secara sewenang-wenang, dan tidak diberikan kebebasan dalam menyatakan pendapat dan kebebasan berkumpul atau berorganisasi. Seraya menekankan perbedaan antar satu Negara dengan Negara lain dalam praktek diskriminasi maupun gagalnya perlindungan hak-hak lain terhadap kaum LGBT, artikel ini juga membahas perkembangan akhir-akhir ini dimana gerakan perlindungan hak kaum LGBT mulai dicanangkan dan berdampak pada beberapa Negara mulai menyertakan kaum LGBT dalam pemberian dan perlindungan hak yang mulanya dilarang seperti hak untuk mengadopsi anak, untuk melangsungkan pernikahan sesama jenis, mengubah jenis kelamin melalui proses medis, dan lain sebagainya. Kata kunci: LGBT, homoseksual, Hak Asasi Manusia, ICCPR