Plan International - Girls' Rights Platform - Girls' rights are human rights: Positioning girls at the heart of the international agenda

Aug 19, 2019

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Violence and discrimination often appear not as singular events but as part of a prolonged vicious circle. They are multiple and multiplied — inextricably linked emotionally, psychologically, physically and structurally. They intersect in a variety of ways, and most clearly where the victim is not only attacked or discriminated against for having a different sexual orientation and gender identity but also on grounds of race, ethnic origin, age, gender, or membership of a minority or indigenous community. The person might also be a child, a young girl, an intersex person, a refugee, an internally displaced person, a migrant worker, a person with a disability, and more. This intersectionality involves a conglomeration of incidents, actors, perpetrators, and victims — the latter being revictimized an infinite number of times, possibly in different phases of life. The situation becomes aggravated precisely because of the convoluted nature of the phenomenon, where crimes are replicated against the same victims and where impunity prevails subsequently, from the home to the school, to the community, to the nation State and to the international spectrum. In today’s cyber world and social media, incitement to hatred and violence driven by hate speech relating to sexual orientation and gender identity has an exponential reach, spinning the web of violations in real time and into the future.

Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

Special Procedures' report

2017

Aug 19, 2019

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The work of WHO, particularly in the area of sexual health, has already been referred to above, as has the work of UNHCR on refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons, particularly in relation to the intersectionality issue. UNHCR has been facing new challenges in regard to recent outflows from the war-related situations in Middle East to Europe and other regions, and it has done key work to raise the profile of sexual orientation and gender identity issues. Meanwhile, UN-Women has been highlighting the rights of lesbians and bisexual, transgender and intersex women and girls; thus has included the mapping of country situations and support for follow-up to the recommendations of human rights treaty bodies and the universal periodic review. For instance, there is an awareness-raising programme on action to end violence against women in Malawi, which includes references to lesbian, bisexual and transgender women. Complementing this, the International Labour Organization is infusing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issue strongly into its decent work programme, while the World Bank has helped to examine the cost of homophobia as well as to generate data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender exclusion. The World Bank has now a focal point on sexual orientation and gender identity and this provides an important opportunity to address violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, especially with low-income countries. A range of other United Nations agencies and programmes, enhanced by United Nations country teams, are progressively integrating the issue of sexual orientation and gender identity into country programming.

Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

Special Procedures' report

2017