Topic Guide for Human Rights Council

History of the LGBT Community

Over the course of the last decade, the issue of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual

and Questioning) rights has become one which increased attention has been focused on, but

public debate over attitudes towards homosexuality has taken place, it goes without saying,

for hundreds of years. Both the Old and New Testament of the Bible, for instance, have what

have been interpreted to be a number of different references to homosexuality, with the most

obvious being Leviticus 18:22(You shall not lie with a man as a woman; that is an abomination’)

whilst the Qur’an also has been interpreted as referring to homosexuality, with Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the then head of the Muslim Council of Britain, denouncing same sex marriages as “harmful” and “something we would certainly not, in any form, encourage the community to be involved in”.

It should be said, however, that at the same time there is considerable evidence suggesting

that the acceptance of same sex relationships (or of trans people or of those identifying with

some other sexual orientation or gender identity) is not a recent phenomenon either.

Sex relationships were also, as is fairly well known, very common in Classical Antiquity

James Davidson points out that “The secret of Greek homosexuality has only ever been a secret to those who neglected to inquire”,going on to note that same sex relationships were so prevalent in Ancient Greek society that the Romans took to referring to the practice of such relationships as ‘The Greek Custom’.Depiction of Ganymede, a male lover of Zeus in Ancient Greek mythology. In Europe, at least, religious debates over the ‘morality’ of homosexuality later gave way to similar debates framed in a more secular manner, with the language used being more medical or psychological than theological.

The modern gay rights movement began in 1969 when the world first started to explore the causes and nature of homosexuality. The first pride parade, known as the March of Stonewall, took place in New York in 1969 and sprung from a police raid on an illegal gay bar. The movement started with people forming organizations that worked to repeal laws prohibiting consensual homosexual conduct, pass legislation barring discrimination against gays in housing and employment, and encourage acceptance of homosexuals among the rest of the population. Throughout the United States, the Supreme Court repealed sodomy laws in 2003. Once seen as a mental illness that was curable through therapy and religion, homosexuality became seen as having to do with biology, psychology, politics, and genetics, leading to acceptance in many regions of the world

Corresponding to this shift in the scientific community in attitudes towards LGBT

individuals has been a broad shift in what might be referred to as ‘Western’ countries towards

legal acceptance, and recognition of the rights of, LGBTQ individuals. This has, however,

happened at varying speeds. In the UK, for instance, homosexuality was legalised in 1967

following the Introduction of that year’s Sexual Offences Act by the British Parliament

whilst in the USA, Gay Marriage was legalized this year.

Rights of the LGBT Community Throughout history, the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community has experienced victimization and unequal treatment. Across the globe, discrimination based on sexual orientation is prevalent, and violent acts of persecution including physical abuse, rape, and murder are inflicted upon LGBT people. The UN Charter boldly states that the United Nations wishes to encourage “respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction.” Similarly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” and “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind.” The difficulty in ensuring fundamental human rights for LGBT citizens worldwide lies within the complications when balancing national sovereignty and human rights. While state sovereignty should not be undermined, universal human rights encoded within international law are intrinsic and to be guaranteed.

Laws that affect the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community depend vary greatly from country to country, and even region to region. Everything exists throughout the world from legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for participating in such acts. LGBT rights are considered human rights by the United Nations but currently each nation creates their own laws and standards. LGBT rights often include government

recognition of same-sex marriage, anti-bullying legislation, immigration equality laws, anti-discrimination laws for employment and housing, hate crime laws providing enhanced criminal penalties for violence against LGBT people, equal age of consent laws, and laws related to sexual orientation and military service. Anti-LGBT laws include sodomy laws penalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity with fines, jail terms, or the death penalty; higher ages of consent for same-sex activity; laws prohibiting same-sex marriage; and laws prohibiting same-sex adoption.

The United Nations did not pass its first resolution recognizing LGBT rights until 2011, when it urged all countries to pass laws to protect the LGBT communities. In many parts of the world, however, this resolution has not yet been recognized. The resolution is trying to expand the idea that LGBT rights are human rights and reduce the amount of violence and discrimination against the LGBT community. There are no boundaries as to how far these issues can go and campaigns for LGBT rights are frequent. A commonly stated goal is social equality for LGBT people.

In some parts of the world, people are more focused on building LGBT communities or working toward liberation for the broader society of sexual oppression. In a large part of the world, specifically in parts of Africa and the Arab world, any acts pertaining to the LGBT community are strictly illegal. Many of the nations that protest LGBT rights make the arguments that these rights are not covered in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and that decisions regarding restrictions on LGBT rights should be matters of national sovereignty. Many cultures are greatly influenced by branches of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish religions that establish gay sexual activity as a “crime against nature” and as such believe that individuals who choose to engage in gay sexual activity should be punished. In the 1800s, punishment for sodomy was often done by means of fire in order to cleanse the soul of its unholy actions.

LGBT RIGHTS IN:

Africa

Africa have the most restricted LGBT rights in the world. Out of the 55 states recognised by the United Nations or African Union or both, the International Gay and Lesbian Association stated in 2015 that homosexuality is outlawed in 34 African countries. Human Rights Watch notes that another two countries, Benin and the Central African Republic, do not outlaw homosexuality, but have certain laws which apply differently to heterosexual and homosexual individuals.

In Mauritania, Sudan and northern Nigeria, homosexuality is punishable by death. In Uganda, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone, offenders can receive life imprisonment for homosexual acts. In addition to criminalizing homosexuality, Nigeria has enacted legislation that would make it illegal for straight family members, allies and friends of the LGBT to be supportive. According to Nigerian law, a straight ally “who administers, witnesses, abets or aids” any form of gender non-conforming and homosexual activity could receive a 10-year jail

sentence. South Africa's constitution has the most liberal attitudes toward gays and lesbians, with a constitution which guarantees gay and lesbian rights, and legal same-sex marriage.

The Americas

Laws governing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are complex in the Americas, and acceptance of LGBT persons varies widely. Same-sex marriages have been legal in Canada nationwide since 2005, in Argentina since 2010, in Brazil nationwide and Uruguay since 2013 and in the United States nationwide since 2015. In Mexico same-sex marriages are performed in Mexico City and the states of Quintana Roo, Coahuila, Chihuahua and Guerrero, and those unions are recognized nationwide. Same-sex marriages are legal in the Caribbean Netherlands, while marriages performed in the Netherlands are recognized in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. More than 600 million people live in nations or sub-national entities in the Americas where same-sex marriages are available.

Furthermore, some other nations have laws recognizing other types of same-sex unions (Colombia, Ecuador and Chile), as well as LGBT adoption and military service by LGBT people. However, eleven other nations, all of them in the former British West Indies, still have criminal punishment for buggery on their statute books. These eleven countries include Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis & Belize

Europe

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are widely diverse in Europe per country. Twelve out of the eighteen countries that have legalised same-sex marriage are situated in Europe; a further thirteen European countries have legalised civil unions or other forms of recognition for same-sex couples. Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Switzerland are considering legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage in Slovenia and Ireland is to become legal in 2015. In addition, it will be enacted in Finland by March 2017. Malta is the only country in Europe that recognizes legally performed same-sex marriages overseas but does not perform them. Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine have a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage

Asia

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Asia are limited in comparison to many other areas of the world. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in at least twenty Asian countries. While at least nine countries allow same-sex people to serve in the military, only Israel provides a wider range of LGBT rights - including same-sex relationship recognition.

In the Islamic regimes of Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, homosexual activity is punished with the death penalty. The legal punishment for sodomy has varied

among juristic schools: some prescribe capital punishment; while other prescribe a milder discretionary punishment such as imprisonment. In some relatively secular Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia. Jordan and Turkey this is not the case

In many nations, religion is still affecting the rights of LGBT communities. Many nations also choose not to acknowledge gay rights because they do not see homosexuality as a legitimate issue while many nations are as advanced as accepting gay marriage nationally. There is no limit to how far these issues spread and what a large group of people they are affecting. While in many nations there has been organized activity to protect the rights of the LGBT community, little has been done yet on a global scale…so perhaps, the time to create universal standards is now.

Transgender Rights

The findings of Injustice at Every Turn, (a report by the National Transgender Discriminatory Survey) indicate specific discriminatory acts transgender people are faced with in the USA. Keeping in mind that LGBT people live a life which is significantly more liberal and respected in the Americas, the findings/analysis of the oppression the transgender community struggles with is horrific. Using a sample of 6,450 transgender and gender non

conforming individuals, a synopsis of the report emphasizes the lack of opportunities, which even in the 21st century world, people were willing to give the respondents. In comparison to the general population, respondents were four times more likely to come from a household of extreme poverty.

The sample experienced unemployment twice as much as the general population and furthermore, the rate of unemployment faced by transgender people increased with people of colour.

Respondents who lost jobs due to antitransgender/homophobic perceptions were four times more likely to turn to self-destructive measures. 41% of the respondents claimed to have attempted suicide, in comparison to the general population, 85% more would find

themselves imprisoned usually because 70% more (than the general population)

would resort to drugs and excessive alcohol consumption. Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force accurately stated that “This report is a critical call to action for our policymakers to confront these horrifying realities by enacting protections without hesitation," Many employers and businesses in even the western parts of the world recognize that transgender people can very easily fail to conform to the work environment and the prestige of their staff would be undermined if they employed cross dressers.

Aside from workplace discrimination, transgender people are verbally if not physically harassed at public facilities and are usually given last priority whether it comes to

waiting for a health service or public transport. In Pakistan, transgender men commonly known as ‘hijras’ are persistently harassed by the police and are turned on the street and forced to submit to prostitution to earn a living. However On January 29th it was reported that chief justice , Iftikhar Chaudhry announced that it was the authorities obligation to ensure that hijras “enjoy the same rights as other Pakistanis, in matters of inheritance, employment and election registration. This was an exceptionally progressive step taken in a highly conservative society however the main issue is the implementation of these laws. The responsibility of protecting and promoting the transgender community in countries where homophobia and anti-transgender bias is illicitly ignored by governments as the general population themselves do not view it as a civil rights issue.

Questions to Consider

1.What are your country’s citizens’ views on LGBT rights? How does the general

population treat LGBT individuals? To what extent can your country ameliorate the legal condition of LGBT citizens?

2.What intrinsic (social or historical) challenges does your country face in addressing LGBT equality? How do these challenges influence your country’s relationship with other nations?

3.How can the United Nations consolidate such broad views on LGBT rights to create a medium for the governance of LGBT individuals

4.Religious and cultural beliefs can get in the way of the battle for rights of sexual minorities. Is there a way for countries to agree to an anti-discrimination legislature and extend their help to these sexual minorities without infringing any sovereign rights of the country?

2) How can HRC help the LGBT community in countries where they are continually persecuted (discrimination, violence, arbitrary detention) on grounds of a different sexual orientation from the norm?

3) What more can be done to allow better access of healthcare services and education (basic human rights) for the LGBT community?

4) How can HRC further ensure that sexual minorities fleeing persecution on grounds of sexual orientation are given a priority for seeking asylum in countries? How can we ensure that these individuals will also protected and not sent back to their place of origin where their

lives will be threatened?

Points a Resolution Should Address

This section concerns areas of the topic which any resolution on the topic should seek to at

east discuss in some depth, although the following list is by no means exhaustive. These

points are:

1. To what extent the promotion of LGBTQ rights is compatible with, or mandated by,

existing Human Rights law in the form of agreements such as the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, among others;

2. Whether the promotion of LGBTQ rights by the UN threatens the national

sovereignty of UN member states who might claim ‘cultural’ or ‘religious’ reasons for

rejecting it under the terms of the UN Charter or other

relevant agreements, as well as

how the sensitivities of individual UN member states might be addressed regardless;

3.How the UN and HRC might go about promoting LGBTQ rights in a more

proactive manner than has been put forward in the HRC resolutions which have

previously addressed this topic;

4. How the UN can work with IGOs (such as the EU) and Non-Governmental Organizations which have had a relative amount of success in promoting LGBTQ rights in order to make such initiatives more effective.

Further Reading

 UN Free and Equal (UNFE) is the UN Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality, with more information on what the UN is currently doing to promote LGBTQ rights. The site for the campaign is https://www.unfe.org/

 76 CRIMES is an NGO which keeps a comprehensive record of countries in which homosexuality has been made illegal or which have laws which impede LGBTQ rights in some way.This information can be found at http://76crimes.com/76-countries-where-homosexuality-is-illegal/

 The previously-mentioned High Commissioner’s report to the Human Rights Council on violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (A/HRC/19/41) can be found here

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 The Office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner has also produced a booklet called ‘Born Free and Equal’ which “sets out the source and scope of the some of the core legal obligations that States have to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people” (which can be read in a language of your choosing)