A/79/151 legitimize extralegal actions, and consolidate power”. 106 The Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association has noted persistent barriers and renewed attacks on the rights of women to peaceful assembly and of association, including on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender id entity and as affected by multiple stereotyping, as well as increased attacks on women working on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues. 107 Such attacks can directly inhibit persons so targeted from participating in the many public processes connected to voter education on key issues, voter turnout and standing for office. Protection of fundamental rights to freedoms of expression, assembly and association, including enforcing objective and reasonable limitations on them and effective protections against hate speech, can serve as a mechanism to protect the campaign environme nt from radicalization and LGBT persons from scapegoating, intimidation and violence. 108 34. The ability to formally exercise freedom of association through legal registration “benefits civil society organizations’ sustainability and their ability to advance equality and human rights for LGBTIQ people”, including in the context of electoral processes. Conversely, unreasonable restrictions on their registration fosters “the invisibility of LGBTIQ organizations in the eyes of State bodies and the general public [which] increases the difficulties of advancing inclusive and non-discriminatory policies”. 109 A survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems found that “a safer environment for LGBTIQ+ people to organize”, as well as “support from organizations and activists that represent other marginalized groups”, contribute greatly to their political participation. 110 This may also be relevant for political parties that include the rights of LGBT people as an explicit component of their platform. VII. Politicized homophobia in election campaigns 35. The manipulation of bias and the deployment of homophobia is especially relevant in the political context of elections, including in how homophobia combines with sexism and transphobia, as well as with racism and discrimination against migrants, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups. Each of these exclusionary practices may affect the diverse subgroups collected under the term LGBT differently, and prevention and remedial efforts must attend to these differences. 111 Research consensus holds that homophobia is socially produced 112 and scholars propose that “homophobia is a purposive strategy, adopted by State and social actors”. 113 In this sense, that is, the deployment of social hostility as a political strategy, scholars link homophobia to other forms of scapegoating and xenophobic tendencies in politics. In many contexts, LGBT issues do not feature at all in political campaigns, as they are seen as a liability that would hurt a candidate ’s prospects. 114 __________________ 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 14/25 Submission by the GLIDE Initiative, p. 8. See A/75/184. See A/HRC/56/49. Outright International, The Global State of LGBTIQ Organizing: The Right to Register and the Freedom to Operate, 2023 (New York, 2023), p. 7. Submission by the GLIDE Initiative, pp. 5 and 6. Václav Štětka and Sabina Mihelj, “Mainstreaming illiberalism: the rise of immigration and LGBTQ+ rights as polarizing issues” in The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies (Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Homophobias: Lust and Loathing across Time and Space , David A.B. Murray, ed. (Durham, North Carolina, United States, Duke University Press, 2009). Global Homophobia: States, Movements, and the Politics of Oppression , Meredith L. Weiss and Michael J. Bosia, eds. (Champaign, Illinois, United States, University of Illinois Press, 2013). Survey by the International Republican Institute in “Understanding the lives of Bangladesh’s LGBTI community”; and submission by the Observatorio Latinoamericano y del Caribe de los Derechos Políticos y Electorales de las Personas Trans, p. 9. 24-12964