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Yogyakarta Principles

The Yogyakarta Principles is a document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity that was published as the outcome of an international meeting of human rights groups in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in November 2006. The principles were supplemented and expanded in 2017 to include new grounds of gender expression and sex characteristics and a number of new principles. However, the Principles have never been accepted by the United Nations (UN) and the attempt to make gender identity and sexual orientation new categories of non-discrimination has been repeatedly rejected by the General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies.[1]

The principles and the supplement contain a set of precepts intended to apply the standards of international human rights law to address the abuse of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Versions[edit]

Original 2006 Principles[edit]

The Principles themselves are a lengthy document addressing legal matters. A website that was established to hold the principles and to make them accessible has an overview of the principles,[2] reproduced here in full:

Reasoning[edit]

The compilers explain that the Principles detail how international human rights law can be applied to sexual orientation and gender identity issues, in a way that affirms international law and to which all states can be bound. They maintain that wherever people are recognised as being born free and equal in dignity and rights, this should include LGBT people. They argue that human rights standards can be interpreted in terms of sexual orientation and gender identity when they touch on issues of torture and violence, extrajudicial execution, access to justice, privacy, freedom from discrimination, freedom of expression and assembly, access to employment, health-care, education, and immigration and refugee issues. The Principles aim to explain that States are obliged to ensure equal access to human rights, and each principle recommends how to achieve this, highlighting international agencies' responsibilities to promote and maintain human rights.[6]


The Principles are based on the recognition of the right to non-discrimination. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has dealt with these matters in its General Comments, the interpretative texts it issues to explicate the full meaning of the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In General Comments Nos. 18 of 2005 (on the right to work), 15 of 2002 (on the right to water) and 14 of 2000 (on the right to the highest attainable standard of health), it indicated that the Covenant proscribes any discrimination on the basis of, inter alia, sex and sexual orientation "that has the intention or effect of nullifying or impairing the equal enjoyment or exercise of [the right at issue]".[20]


The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), notwithstanding that it has not addressed the matter in a General Comment or otherwise specified the applicable provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, on a number of occasions has criticised states for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. For example, it addressed the situation of sexual minority women in Kyrgyzstan and recommended that, 'lesbianism be reconceptualised as a sexual orientation and that penalties for its practice be abolished'.

Reception[edit]

United Nations[edit]

The Principles have never been accepted by the United Nations and the attempt to make gender identity and sexual orientation new categories of non-discrimination has been repeatedly rejected by the General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies. In July 2010, Vernor Muñoz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, presented to the United Nations General Assembly an interim report on the human right to comprehensive sexual education, in which he cited the Yogyakarta Principles as a Human Rights standard.[21] In the ensuing discussion, the majority of General Assembly Third Committee members recommended against adopting the principles.[22] The Representative of Malawi, speaking on behalf of all African States argued that the report:

The Yogyakarta Principles

Yogyakarta Principles plus 10

(Official site of UNHCR)

The Yogyakarta Principles

Yogyakarta Principles in Action

Andrzejewski, Ju; Baltodano, Marta; Symcox, Linda (2009). . Routledge. ISBN 9780203879429.

Social Justice, Peace, and Environmental Education: Transformative Standards

Yogyakarta Principles: applying existing human rights norms to sexual orientation and gender identity, HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev. 2008 Dec;13(2–3):92-3.

Dittrich, Boris

Ettelbrick, Paula L.; Trabucco Zerán, Alia (2016), (PDF)

The impact of the Yogyakarta Principles on the International Human Rights Law Development, A Study of November 2007 – June 2010

S. Farrior, Human Rights Advocacy on Gender Issues: Challenges and Opportunities, J Human Rights Practice, March 1, 2009; 1(1): 83–100.

Kara, Sheherezade (2016). "Reclaiming the Gender Framework: Contextualizing Jurisprudence on Gender Identity in UN Human Rights Mechanisms". LGBTQ Policy Journal. VI: 22–32.

Michael O'Flaherty and John Fisher, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and International Human Rights Law: Contextualising the Yogyakarta Principles, Human Rights Law Review 2008 8(2):207–248; :10.1093/hrlr/ngn009

doi

Otto, Dianne (October 2015). "Queering Gender (Identity) in International Law". . 33 (4): 299–318. doi:10.1080/18918131.2016.1123474. ISSN 1891-8131. S2CID 147374368.

Nordic Journal of Human Rights

Tozzi, Piero A. (2008), (PDF), Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute

Six Problems with the "Yogyakarta Principles"

Waites, Matthew (2009). "Critique of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' in human rights discourse: global queer politics beyond the Yogyakarta Principles". . 15 (1): 137–156. doi:10.1080/13569770802709604. ISSN 1356-9775. S2CID 143695135.

Contemporary Politics

The Yogyakarta Principles