Making LGBT Rights into Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Langlois
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International System ◽  
Lgbt Rights ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
The Status ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Key Aspects

This chapter commences by examining the status LGBT rights have achieved within the United Nations (UN) human rights system and reviews some key aspects of their trajectory. It considers how best to interpret the varying roles LGBT rights can play in the international system, given their new status, with a critical reading of Hillary Clinton’s famous and much lauded “gay rights are human rights” speech to the UN General Assembly in 2011. It then moves on to what LGBT rights as human rights might mean in those parts of the world where this status receives little if any formal institutional recognition, using the case of the Southeast Asian region, where a new human rights regime has been established but where non-normative sexuality and gender have been willfully excluded from its remit. The chapter considers what the politics of human rights mean for sexuality and gender-diverse people in this region with reference to two senses in which human rights claims are political: (1) activists and advocates push against the status quo to have sexuality and gender issues included in the human rights discussion and (2) resistance to this inclusion is often played out by a politicization of sexuality and gender that obscures other pressing issues. This chapter demonstrates both the profound and important advances that have been made for LGBT individuals and communities and the ways in which these successes generate political dynamics of their own, which must be carefully navigated in order to sustain the emancipatory potential of the movement.

scholarly journals Review Article: Curiosity, Paradox and Dissatisfaction: Queer Analyses of Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-165
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Langlois
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Common Theme ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
International Human ◽  
And Gender

Three recent books are discussed which offer queer analyses of attempts to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people from violence and discrimination using the international human rights regime. A common theme is the way in which equal rights are invoked and institutionalised to address prejudice, discrimination and violence. The take, however, is critical: while it may be a remarkable turn of events that the United Nations (UN) and similar institutions have become LGBTI advocates, such Damascene conversions generate their own dilemmas and rarely resolve structural and conceptual paradoxes. This article foregrounds the curiosity of queer scholars engaged with the application of human rights to matters of sexuality and gender, observes how they articulate the paradoxes and dissatisfactions that are produced in this normatively and politically charged field, and draws out the limitations and complexities of rights politics in combating systemic exclusion.

scholarly journals Diversity and safety on campus @ Western: Heterosexism and cissexism in higher education

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole L. Asquith ◽  
Tania Ferfolia ◽  
Brooke Brady ◽  
Benjamin Hanckel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Diverse Students ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Discrimination, harassment and violence can vitiate staff and students’ experiences of education and work. Although there is increasing knowledge about these experiences in primary and secondary education, very little is known about them in higher education. This paper draws from landmark research that examines the interpersonal, educational and socio-cultural perspectives that prevail about sexuality and gender diversity on an Australian university campus. In this paper we focus on three aspects of the broader research findings: the heterosexism and cissexism experienced by sexuality and gender diverse students and staff at the university; their actions and responses to these experiences; and the impact of these experiences on victims. The research demonstrates that although the university is generally safe, sexuality and gender diverse students and staff experience heterosexist and cissexist discrimination, which can have negative ramifications on their workplace and learning experiences.

Non-discrimination, Accommodation, and Intersectionality under the CRPD: New Trends and Challenges for the UN Human Rights System

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-130
Author(s):  
Wiebke Ringel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
National Level ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Treaty Body ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
And Gender

On 3 May 2008, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) entered into force. The CRPD is the first human rights treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in the 21st century. It is also the first binding international law instrument that specifically and comprehensively addresses disability from a human rights perspective. Building on existing UN human rights treaties, the CRPD aims to strengthen the effective enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities. Specifically, the new convention seeks to remedy the neglect and marginalization of the rights of persons with disabilities not just at the national level but also at the international level, most notably within the UN treaty system. In this regard, the new convention endorses innovative and new approaches relating to, inter alia, the notions of disability, nondiscrimination, and intersectionality. This article analyses selected emerging key issues, including the principle of reasonable accommodation and the intersectionality of disability and gender. A specific focus will be on the emerging jurisprudence of the responsible treaty body, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. While some of the aspects discussed may appear to primarily arise under a disability-specific perspective, it is suggested that they could potentially provide an impetus to advance the UN human rights system in general, beyond the context of disability.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Feminist Framework to Address Public Health Impact of Violence, Abuse, and Trauma in Children, Women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ Community: A Preliminary Observation

2021 ◽  
pp. 101053952110143
Author(s):  
Sonia Mukhtar ◽  
Shamim Mukhtar ◽  
Waleed Rana
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Preliminary Observation ◽  
Public Health Impact ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

This article explores the development and implementation of inclusive COVID-19 (corona disease 2019) Feminist Framework (CFF) on the equitability of response for researchers, health care advocates, and public health policymakers at international platforms. Mechanism of CFF entails the process to address and mitigate the institutional inequities, violation of human rights, public health, and race/sex/gender-based violence amid COVID-19. This framework is about institutional building, raising consciousness, ensuring freedom, collective liberation, bodily autonomy, equality, and giving women, children, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and racial- and gender-diverse people the freedom to make choices to promote a sense of greater control over their own lives.

Theorizing the Politics of (Homo)Sexualities across Cultures

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Blasius
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
History Of Sexuality ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Aids Pandemic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
And Gender

This chapter focuses on an event in the history of sexuality, more specifically in the history of sexuality as a political issue. In recent years, vastly diverse movements around the politics of sexuality have embraced the notion of “sexual rights.” This concept developed rapidly especially since the UN Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) and in the wake of the global AIDS pandemic. More recently, rights specific to sexual orientation and gender identity have gained prominence, for instance with a 2011 Human Rights Council resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity, and a report to the UN General Assembly that analyzed in a preliminary way the universal human rights of LGBT persons. Issuance of this report and the resolution that commissioned it together signify a historical event in the politics of sexuality.

Decolonizing Decolonization: An Indigenous Feminist Perspective on the Recognition and Rights Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-391
Author(s):  
Sherry Pictou
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The “Recognition and Implementation of Indigenous Rights Framework,” announced in 2018 by the federal government was originally hailed as a process for decolonization. Though the framework was withdrawn in December 2018, several policy and legislative initiatives give every indication that the framework is moving forward. In this regard, the paper seeks to open up a discussion about how decolonization is being conceptualized in the new Rights Framework from an Indigenous feminist perspective. I highlight tensions between patriarchy, neoliberalism, and contradictory concepts of decolonization to demonstrate how the Rights Framework manifests a contemporary form of patriarchal colonialism in state-Indigenous politics, especially self-government negotiations, that will continue to negatively impact Indigenous women and gender diverse persons. I further argue how the MMIWG Inquiry Final Report released in June 2019, cannot be mobilized as a tool for decolonization in seeking social justice for Indigenous women and gender diverse persons without their active knowledge and experience in directing how the recommendations are implemented. By foregrounding this experience with an intersectional, gender based analysis + or GBA+ (gender and gender diverse inclusive), and a human rights approach, I suggest there is potential for achieving Indigenous sovereignty over our bodies as well as over the land and waters in ways that are conducive to our resilience and freedom as Indigenous people.

Sexuality and Gender

2009 ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Laura McClure
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
The Status ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Gender

In discussing sexual identity, this article focuses on specific issues in understanding how individuals could be constructed as sexual beings. The ancient Greeks themselves had no specific or overarching terms for either gender or sexuality, yet distinctions based on biological sex were deeply embedded in the linguistic, cognitive, political, and social structures of their society at all periods. Just as biological sex precedes sexuality in many accounts, so men were thought to come into being before women in Greek mythology. Meanwhile, the sexual practices of the ancient Greeks attracted the attention of scholars much earlier than questions about the status and position of Greek women.

Late Twentieth-Century Controversies in Sexual Ethics, Gender, and Ordination

2019 ◽  
pp. 317-332
Author(s):  
Lesley Orr
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
Women's Ordination ◽  
The Status ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
The Church

During the second half of the twentieth century, a seismic shift in outlook, norms, behaviours, and laws transformed Western societies, particularly in relation to sexuality and gender relations. These changes were characterized and facilitated by escalating rejection of dominant sources of moral authority, including organized religion. This chapter considers the Church of Scotland’s response to the ‘permissive society’. It attempted to grapple theologically with questions concerning marriage and divorce, homosexuality, and women’s ordination, confronted unavoidably with profound questions concerning gender, power, and sexuality. These debates generated controversy and division as the moral consensus fractured. Fault lines opened up between conservatives who defended the validity of Christian moral certainties, and others who embraced more liberal and contextual interpretations of Scripture and tradition. Previously silenced or subordinated voices emerged, challenging but failing to provoke radical institutional change at a time of rapid declension in the status and cultural influence of the national Church.

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