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YOGYAKARTA-PRINCIPLES

YOGYAKARTA-PRINCIPLES

What are Human Rights?

The construction of human rights is one of the significant feats of the 20th Century. Tracing from the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, we have witnessed how these principles not only critique but protect all individuals.

Human rights, according to the United Nations, are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. A bundle of these rights constitutes the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to work and education, among many others. It also provides the minimum conditions, goods, opportunities, and services that every humans must enjoy and possess, and which every State must guarantee, in order for everyone to live with dignity.

Should the Rights of the LGBTQIA+ and Persons of Vulnerable SOGIESC be regarded as Special Rights?

NO. Human rights are for all, and this includes the LGBTQIA+ persons and people with vulnerable SOGIESC (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression, and Sex Characteristics). All persons are born free with equal rights and dignity.

However, discrimination, human rights violations, inequality, and stigma remain an everyday experience among the people with actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. They are constrained by a multitude of exclusionary acts by family, school, workplace, health care system, and public spaces. In worst situations, many suffered from physical attacks and extreme cases of violence such as beatings, sexual assault, torture, extra-judicial killings, and many others. Same-sex relations are punishable by death in five countries.

This only means that a lot of work needs to be done to flatten inequality and make human rights inclusive for all.


The Yogyakarta Principles

The Yogyakarta Principles contain a collection of principles that put in detail the application of human rights law to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics. They reflect what the law currently says and reveal the inequalities in law that have to be addressed as articulated in its 29 Principles:

Principle 1.The Right to Universal Enjoyment of Human Rights
Principle 2. The Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination:
Principle 3. The Right to Recognition before the Law
Principle 4. The Right to Life
Principle 5. The Right to Security of the Person
Principle 6. The Right to Privacy
Principle 7. The Right to Freedom from Arbitrary Deprivation of Liberty
Principle 8. The Right to Fair Trial
Principle 9. The Right to Treatment with Humanity while in Detention
Principle 10. The Right to Freedom from Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Principle 11. The Right to Protection from all Forms of Exploitation, Sale and Trafficking of Human Beings
Principle 12. The Right to Work
Principle 13. The Right to Social Security and to Other Social Protection Measures
Principle 14. The Right to an Adequate Standard of Living
Principle 15. The Right to Adequate Housing
Principle 16. The Right to Education
Principle 17. The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health
Principle 18. Protection from Medical Abuses
Principle 19. The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Principle 20. The Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Principle 21. The Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion
Principle 22. The Right to Freedom of Movement
Principle 23. The Right to Seek Asylum
Principle 24. The Right to Found a Family
Principle 25. The Right to Participate in Public Life
Principle 26. The Right to Participate in Cultural Life
Principle 27. The Right to Promote Human Rights
Principle 28. The Right to Effective Remedies and Redress
Principle 29. Accountability


YOGYAKARTA Principles Plus 10

On November 10, 2017, additional principles were laid out to further address the violations suffered by persons on the basis of their SOGIESC and recognize the different intersectional grounds of gender expression and sex characteristics:

Principle 30. The Right to State Protection
Principle 31. The Right to Legal Recognition
Principle 32. The Right to Bodily and Mental Integrity
Principle 33. The Right to Freedom from Criminalization and Sanction on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression or Sex Characteristics
Principle 34. The Right to Protection from Poverty
Principle 35. The Right to Sanitation
Principle 36. The Right to the Enjoyment of Human Rights in Relation to Information and Communication Technologies
Principle 37. The Right to Truth
Principle 38. The Right to Practise, Protect, Preserve and Revive Cultural Diversity
Additional State Obligations Relating to Principles 2, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, and 27.


Obligations

The State has the primary responsibility to fully realize human rights for all and in fulfilling the recommendations stipulated in the Yogyakarta Principles. The Principles also stress that other actors have responsibility for its realization, including the UN human rights system, national human rights institutions, the media, non-government organizations, and other relevant institutions.

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Amplifying the Tri-People PRIDE

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