LGBTI rights | Factsheets on UN Special Procedures

ISHR and ILGA World have looked through the work of 39 UN Special Procedures over the last eight years to compile factsheets listing the references and recommendations made by these experts regarding LGBTI persons, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression.

Focusing on the Special Procedures that have 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 November 2019. Find out more about the trends over the past year here.

During this period, 37 Special Procedures have made SOGIESC references in over 400 country visits, thematic reports and communications. In both 2018 and 2019, almost every second report contained some reference to SOGIESC. However, the level of detail and analysis, as well as which mandates do or do not engage with SOGIESC issues regularly, show that there are still oppportunities for LGBTI defenders to strengthen this work.

In addition, since 2016, the Independent Expert on SOGI has played a vital role in adding to the amount and analytical depth of the SOGIESC references. So far, according to the information published on the OHCHR website, the mandate holders have conducted 4 country visits, sent 46 communications and prepared 6 thematic reports exclusively centred on SOGIESC.

Explore our infographics and fact sheets below, and later this year we will also present a more detailed analysis of SOGIESC references, as well as suggestions for future improvements and LGBTI defenders’ engagement with this part of the UN system.

Read this article to find out more about the efforts of Special Procedures to push for better protection of the human rights of LGBTI persons over the last year.

• Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
• Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
• Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
• Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
• Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
• Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice
• Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment
• Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
• Working Group on arbitrary detention
• Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances
• Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
• Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
• Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
• Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
• Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
• Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context
• Special Rapporteur on the right to education
• Working Group on people of African descent
• Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
• Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities
• Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants
• Special Rapporteur on minority issues
• Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples
• Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons
• Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers
• Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
• Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children
• Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
• Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children
• Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises
• Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
• Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
• Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence
• Special Rapporteur on the right to development
• Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
• Special rapporteur on the right to food
• Working group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination

The experts on leprosy and environment have not yet included any references to LGBTI persons or issues related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics.

_{Photo credit: Common Wikimedia Ludovic Bertron}