Search Tips
Certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 2013, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has concluded that homophobic ill-treatment on the part of health professionals is unacceptable and should be proscribed and denounced. There is an abundance of accounts and testimonies of persons being denied medical treatment, subjected to verbal abuse and public humiliation, psychiatric evaluation, a variety of forced procedures such as sterilization, State-sponsored forcible anal examinations for the prosecution of suspected homosexual activities, and invasive virginity examinations conducted by health-care providers, hormone therapy and genital-normalizing surgeries under the guise of so called "reparative therapies". These procedures are rarely medically necessary, can cause scarring, loss of sexual sensation, pain, incontinence and lifelong depression and have also been criticized as being unscientific, potentially harmful and contributing to stigma (A/HRC/14/20, para. 23). The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern about lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women as "victims of abuses and mistreatment by health service providers" (A/HRC/19/41, para. 56).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Violence committed by family members against relatives in order to protect the family's "honour" is a common practice around the world. In some communities honour is equated with the regulation of female sexuality and with women's conformity with social norms and traditions. Women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are the most common victims of honour-based violence, which targets female sexuality and autonomy and individuals' actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (A/61/122/Add.1 and Corr.1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 2017, para. 29c (i)
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties implement the following legislative measures:] Repeal, including in customary, religious and indigenous laws, all legal provisions that are discriminatory against women and thereby enshrine, encourage, facilitate, justify or tolerate any form of gender-based violence. In particular, repeal the following: Provisions that allow, tolerate or condone forms of gender-based violence against women, including child or forced marriage and other harmful practices, provisions allowing medical procedures to be performed on women with disabilities without their informed consent and provisions that criminalize abortion, being lesbian, bisexual or transgender, women in prostitution and adultery, or any other criminal provisions that affect women disproportionally, including those resulting in the discriminatory application of the death penalty to women;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- LGBTQI+
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Certain forms of abuses in health-care settings that may cross a threshold of mistreatment that is tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 2013, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- In many countries transgender persons are required to undergo often unwanted sterilization surgeries as a prerequisite to enjoy legal recognition of their preferred gender. In Europe, 29 States require sterilization procedures to recognize the legal gender of transgender persons. In 11 States where there is no legislation regulating legal recognition of gender, enforced sterilization is still practised. As at 2008, in the United States of America, 20 states required a transgender person to undergo "gender-confirming surgery" or "gender reassignment surgery" before being able to change their legal sex. In Canada, only the province of Ontario does not enforce "transsexual surgery" in order to rectify the recorded sex on birth certificates. Some domestic courts have found that not only does enforced surgery result in permanent sterility and irreversible changes to the body, and interfere in family and reproductive life, it also amounts to a severe and irreversible intrusion into a person's physical integrity. In 2012, the Swedish Administrative Court of Appeals ruled that a forced sterilization requirement to intrude into someone's physical integrity could not be seen as voluntary. In 2011, the Constitutional Court in Germany ruled that the requirement of gender reassignment surgery violated the right to physical integrity and self-determination. In 2009, the Austrian Administrative High Court also held that mandatory gender reassignment, as a condition for legal recognition of gender identity, was unlawful. In 2009, the former Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe observed that "[the involuntary sterilization] requirements clearly run counter to the respect for the physical integrity of the person".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- LGBTQI+
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Gender perspectives on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- Women and girls tend to be at risk of honour violence or killing for engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage, choosing partners without their family's approval or behaving in other ways that are considered immoral; Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are also targeted (A/HRC/29/23). Honour killings have been documented in South-East Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East and affect 5,000-12,000 women each year. States' failure to prevent honour-based violence contravenes their obligations to combat and prevent torture and ill-treatment. This includes failure to grant asylum to persons facing the risk of honour violence in their countries of origin.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to sexual and reproductive health (Art. 12) 2016, para. 59
- Paragraph text
- Violations of the obligation to protect occur when a State fails to take effective steps to prevent third parties from undermining the enjoyment of the right to sexual and reproductive health. This includes the failure to prohibit and take measures to prevent all forms of violence and coercion committed by private individuals and entities, including domestic violence, rape (including marital rape), sexual assault, abuse and harassment, including during conflict, post-conflict and transition situations; violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons or women seeking abortion or post-abortion care; harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage, forced sterilization, forced abortion and forced pregnancy; and medically unnecessary, irreversible and involuntary surgery and treatment performed on intersex infants or children.
- Body
- Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- LGBTQI+
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
6 shown of 6 entities