Progress towards giving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people legal equality has been overshadowed by "brutal" and "grotesque" homophobic and transphobic violence which often goes unreported and unpunished, according to the United Nations.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured in recent years, in violence that included knife attacks, anal rape and genital mutilation, as well as stoning and dismemberment, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in the report. Yet the lack of effective systems for recording and reporting hate crimes against LGBT people masks the true extent of such violence.

"While some progress has been made since the first study in 2011, the overall picture remains one of continuing, pervasive, violent abuse, harassment and discrimination affecting LGBT and intersex persons in all regions," Hussein said. The report called for the implementation of anti-LGBT hate crimes laws, decriminalisation of consensual same-sex activity, legal protection for same-sex couples and their children and a ban on so-called "conversion therapies," which are intended to "cure" homosexual attraction. Read More

Access the full report here