Co-hosted preview event for award-winning doco “Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge”
BGIPU was very pleased to co-host with event partners in the BBC and the APPG for Human Rights a virtual preview panel discussion in advance of the upcoming BBC Four Storyville documentary Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge inviting parliamentarians, civil society representatives and media to hear more about the documentary which highlights the grave human rights violations being committed against the LGBTI community in Chechnya and efforts to rescue them from such treatment.
This award-winning documentary will be transmitted on BBC Four on 1 July which lays bare the Russian republic’s deadly war on LGBTQ people. The documentary highlights that countless victims have been killed and hundreds more are missing. With the LGBTQ community living in fear and secrecy, this brave and searing film follows the extraordinary bravery of the Chechens whose lives are being threatened and the underground team fighting to rescue them before it’s too late.
The event on 18 June had introductory remarks from Stephen Fry and was co-hosted by the BBC, the British Group of the IPU and the All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group. The preview event was chaired by Ben Hunte, BBC LGBT Correspondent and featured David France, Director of Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge, Veronika Lapina of the Russian LGBT Network, Crispin Blunt MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights and Tanya Lokshina, Associate Europe and Central Asia Director of Human Rights Watch with a large number of UK MPs and Peers participating to hear the views of the panel.
Already screened and lauded at a number of filmed festivals and shown on HBO in the United States, a trailer for the film can be viewed in advance of its transmission on BBC Storyville on 1 July 2020.
The documentary will screen on BBC Four on 1 July 2020
The panel discussed human rights abuses against the LGBTI community in Chechnya
Stephen Fry provided introductory remarks on the plight of LGBTI people worldwide in the face of violence and discrimination
