ILGA World and ISHR have examined the work of 40 UN Special Procedures over the last nine years to compile factsheets listing the references and recommendations made by these experts regarding LGBTI persons, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
Focusing on the Special Procedures that made the most regular and in-depth references to issues affecting LGBTI persons, the factsheets examine all thematic reports, reports arising from country visits, and communications sent to different States between January 2011 and 20 November 2020. Find out more about the trends over the past year here.
During this period, in relation to LGBTI topics, thematic Special Procedures sent 19 new communications, issued 28 reports on country visits and published 39 thematic reports.
The mandates that made the most regular references to SOGIESC issues were the Independent Expert on SOGI and the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. In welcome advances some mandates made their first communications covering LGBTI topics (disappearance, minority issues, older persons and mercenaries), and included SOGIESC issues in their reports of country visits for the first time (disabilities, terrorism).
While more than 50% of all thematic reports mentioned some LGBTI related topics, the level of detail and analysis, as well which mandates regularly referencing SOGIESC issues, show that opportunities remain for LGBTI defenders to strengthen this work, including in relation to specific populations within LGBTI communities, such as LBQ women, trans or intersex persons.
All communications were made with the Independent Expert on SOGI, who since 2016, has played an essential role in adding to discussion of SOGI issues at the UN. According to information published on the OHCHR website, this mandate has conducted 6 country visits, sent 63 communications and prepared 8 thematic reports exclusively centered on violence and discrimination on the basis of SOGI.
Explore our fact sheets below, and read this article to find out more about the trends seen over the last year in efforts of Special Procedures to push for better protection of the rights of LGBTI persons.
- Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity
- Independent Expert on foreign debt
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons
- Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
- Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty
- Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
- Special Rapporteur on human rigths and the environment
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes
- Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence
- Special Rapporteur on the right to development
- Special Rapporteur on the right to education
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Special Rapporteur on the right to health
- Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children
- Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment
- Special Rapporteur on trafficking
- Special Rapporteur on violence against women
- Working Group of Experts on arbitrary detention
- Working Group of Experts on people of African descent
- Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances
- Working group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights
- Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
- Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises