Margot James, the first openly lesbian MP in the Conservative Party, tweeted a short time ago that British Prime Minister David Cameron plans to raise the issue of Russia's anti-gay laws with President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit.
Tweeted James:
"Europe Minister confirms that PM will raise anti gay discriminatory legislation and attacks on gay people with President Putin at the G20"
The announcement comes as Human Rights Watch urges world leaders to take action on LGBT rights while at the Summit.
Leaders of G20 countries should take concrete action to show support for human rights and civil society during the G20 summit in St. Petersburg. They should meet nongovernmental organizations, for example. Russia set its priorities for its 2013 G20 presidency as growth through jobs and investment, growth through transparency and trust, and growth through effective regulation. It is hosting the leaders' summit on September 5-6 in St Petersburg.
"A strong, open society is essential for transparency," said Tanya Lokshina, Russia program director at Human Rights Watch. "Russia's leadership needs to hear from its G20 partners that its crackdown does not serve but instead contradicts the interests of an open society."
In letters to leaders of select G20 states, including Argentina, Australia, and Brazil, Human Rights Watch urged that they speak out against the crackdown on human rights over the past 16 months. Human Rights Watch asked them to meet with Russian nongovernmental organizations to hear first-hand about the impact of the crackdown on their work.
President Obama will be meeting with some of these groups, it was revealed over the weekend.
