Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey Most Restrictive On Gay Rights In Europe

Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Armenia have the most restrictive lespian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality laws and policies in Europe, a campaign group says.

Azerbaijan scored just 3 percent on a scale where zero indicates gross human rights violations and 100 percent is the greatest degree of equality under the law, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) said.

Azerbaijan gained points in just three of the 69 individual categories, which referred to areas such as employment rights and marriage equality.

Turkey and Armenia were given 5 and 7 percent, respectively.

An accurate comparison with last year's results is not possible, since ILGA-Europe has changed the overall number of categories to put more stress on laws and policies covering civil society and asylum.

The countries that ranked high on this year's list, including top-ranked Malta, Luxembourg (third), and Finland (fourth), have addressed gaps in transgender and intersex rights, said Evelyne Paradis, executive director of ILGA-Europe.

The ranking analyzed laws and policies governing LGBT matters across 49 European countries over the past year.

With reporting by AFP