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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2022
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Since the global COVID-19 pandemic hit, civil society and human rights activists have been trying to get back to United Nations spaces and meaningfully participate in person in all multilateral spaces. Civil society was the last group to be allowed back inside the United Nations Headquarters, even after visitors. As we relearn and reinvent advocacy work in person, Outright International is happy to report on several advances at the United Nations in relation to LGBTIQ people’s rights.
This semester, the UN LGBTI Core Group, to which Outright is the Secretariat, hosted a high-level event to highlight the importance of LGBTIQ defenders’ and organizations’ meaningful participation. A South African trans rights activist, supported by Outright, spoke alongside the Prime Ministers of Iceland and Malta and the Secretary of State of the United States. We worked with partners and member states to achieve the renewal of the mandate of the Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and witnessed important human rights wins in negotiations at the Third Committee of the General Assembly. We brought LGBTIQ voices and perspectives into conversations on Women, Peace and Security. We welcomed 16 activists from all over the globe to New York for our first in-person UN Advocacy Week since 2019.
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UN CORE GROUP
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The UN LGBTI Core Group is an informal cross-regional group of United Nations member states working within the United Nations framework to ensure universal respect for LGBTIQ people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms. Outright International serves as the secretariat for the UN LGBTI Core Group. The LGBTI Core Group delivers statements during UN meetings, dialogues, open debates, and days of recognition to ensure that LGBTIQ issues are mainstreamed within the international human rights legal and policy framework. Through formal statements and comments, the Core Group emphasizes how multiple co-existing identities shape people's experiences within social, political, and economic systems. This quarter, the Core Group delivered a statement during the Third Committee Human Rights General discussion emphasizing that full decriminalization of all sexual orientations and gender identities is critical to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Each September, the United Nations General Assembly convenes in New York and opens with High-Level Week, where heads of state, ambassadors, and representatives come to address their country’s priorities and discuss global issues. This year, on 19 September, the UN LGBTI Core Group, which Outright is the secretariat of, hosted a high-level dialogue on LGBTIQ rights called “The Right to Be Me”. Speakers discussed topics like the urgent need to end anti-LGBTIQ violence and discrimination, the legal barriers transgender people face, the violence of unnecessary surgeries on intersex youth, challenges and solutions for meaningful LGBTIQ inclusion and participation in political spaces, and the need for intersectional advocacy. High-level speakers included the Prime Ministers of Malta and Iceland as well as the United States Secretary of State, alongside the executive director of Outright’s partner organization in South Africa, Gender Dynamix.
On 28 September, the UN LGBTI Core Group held a briefing with Lisa Davis, the Special Advisor on Gender Persecution to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor. The Special Advisor and the LGBTI Core Group discussed the new ICC policy paper on gender persecution. Gender persecution is a crime against humanity that is committed when a perpetrator targets victims for serious crimes based on their gender. The policy paper integrates an LGBTIQ-inclusive understanding of gender into the ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s work when it investigates and charges gender-based crimes. The new policy paper on gender persecution is a step toward holding perpetrators of violence against LGBTIQ people accountable.
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UNGA THIRD COMMITTEE
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The General Assembly is made up of six committees, each focused on a specific area of work. The Third Committee addresses agenda items relating to social and humanitarian affairs and human rights issues. This is a space where human rights conversations happen and where we have seen some wins for the LGBTIQ movement.
A. Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Mandate Renewal
On 17 November, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution on the Annual Report of the Human Rights Council without challenging the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (IE SOGI) contained therein. While the creation of this mandate was highly contested, this is the second time the work of the Independent Expert has been renewed without a challenge.
Active for the last six years, the mandate gathers data on human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity and engages with states to highlight protection gaps and promote best practices. Its renewal was celebrated by LGBTIQ activists around the world, who count on the mandate to help address human rights violations, build analytical frameworks in support of LGBTIQ inclusion, and diffuse best practices.
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B. Resolution on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
In November, the Third Committee adopted the Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions (EJE) Resolution, which focuses on the protection of all from extrajudicial killings, especially those who are most marginalized. The EJE Resolution, a recurring resolution proposed by a member state every two years, was the first ever General Assembly Resolution to explicitly mention sexual orientation, in 2002, and gender identity, in 2012. This year, it was co-sponsored by 66 states, showing cross-regional support for the resolution as a whole, including a reference to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) as one of a number of specific groups that are targeted for extrajudicial, arbitrary, and summary executions. This year marked the fifth renewal of the Resolution while it has included SOGI language. A group of countries that oppose LGBTIQ equality attempted to remove language on sexual orientation and gender identity in the resolution. This attack failed, and the resolution passed with its reference to SOGI intact.
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C. Iran
On 16 November, the Third Committee adopted the resolution entitled “Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The resolution expresses serious concern regarding the application of the death penalty for non-serious crimes, including same-sex relations, adultery, apostasy, blasphemy, and convictions for drinking alcohol. This text is the first General Assembly resolution to use “same-sex relations” terminology. Representatives of Australia, New Zealand, and Norway made statements in which they implored Iran to end the repression of LGBTI people.
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WOMEN, PEACE, AND SECURITY
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On 20 October 2022, the Security Council held a debate on Women, Peace, and Security. Zahra Nader, an activist from Afghanistan, asked member states to call on the Taliban to respect the rights of LGBTIQ people. Mexico, Malta, Colombia, and Costa Rica spoke about the needs of people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in conflict. Numerous other states used LGBTIQ-inclusive language in their statements. Outright maintained a presence at a wide range of events leading up to and following the open debate on Women, Peace, and Security in order to ensure an LGBTIQ lens was included in as many spaces as possible.
Outright collaborated with civil society coalitions to advocate for the full and equal participation of LGBTIQ people and organizations in peace and security spaces at the UN, including by working with an Iraqi activist to brief UN personnel on conditions for LGBTIQ people in their country.
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ADVOCACY WEEK
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Each year, Outright International hosts LGBTIQ human rights defenders from all over the world for Advocacy Week. Activists participate in high-level UN events, speak with Permanent representatives of State delegations and UN agencies, build international advocacy networks, and share their experiences with other activists. Advocacy Week gives activists the chance to voice their concerns, influence multilateral decision-making, and issue calls to action on the rights of LGBTIQ people. This year’s Advocacy Week delegates included advocates from St. Lucia, Namibia, Ukraine, Viet Nam, Philippines, Lebanon, Ghana, South Africa, St. Lucia, China, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Singapore. They met with representatives from over 15 countries and a variety of UN agencies. Advocacy Week delegates also spoke at two in-person OutSummit sessions, one on the eradication of conversion practices and another on pathways toward decriminalization of same-sex intimacy.
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