Defining a Particular Social Group Based on the Meaning of Non-Discrimination in International Human Rights Law: Utilizing the Definition in Deciding Refugee Claims Based on Sexual Orientation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim S. Braimah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Social Group ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human

scholarly journals Crossing borders between International Refugee Law and International Human Rights Law in the European context: Can human rights enhance protection against persecution based on sexual orientation (and beyond)?

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-378
Author(s):  
Carmelo Danisi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Geneva Convention ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Human ◽  
International Refugee Law

In the last decades, international refugee law (‘IRL’) and international human rights law (‘IHRL’) have increasingly taken into account sexual minorities’ needs. Despite not being one of the grounds of persecution under the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, sexual orientation has been identified as a relevant factor for the recognition of refugee status for more than twenty years. In parallel, IHRL has evolved to a point where sexual minorities are more fully included within the scope of rights and freedoms set forth in universal and regional human rights treaties, especially via the prohibition of discrimination. Yet, strange as it may seem, this simultaneous evolution has not always led to a fruitful intersection between IRL and IHRL, even in terms of interpretation despite what the Law of Treaties requires. Drawing from documentary and qualitative data and by taking people fleeing homophobia as example, this article looks at the role that IHRL may play in complementing and in intersection with IRL. It argues that IHRL may, firstly, raise obligations to facilitate the access of these claimants to asylum determination procedures and, secondly, inform the notion of persecution used in IRL more comprehensively than it currently does in practice.

Discourses of Sex: Classical, Modernist, Post-Modernist

1998 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
International Human ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

AbstractDiscourses of sexuality, gender and sexual orientation are moving from the margins to the mainstream of legal theory, notably in the area of international human rights. Each of these three sets of discourses preserves its own history and ideals. Neither are they wholly distinct from each other, nor are they simply three concepts denoting the same thing. Each has remained quasi-autonomous – always related to, yet always stubbornly distinct from, the others. No one of these three discursive sites can be engaged without significant reference to the other two; nor does one site simply reduce to another. What do we mean, then, when we use one of these terms, and when we choose it instead of the other two? What relationships obtain among the three sites? This essay proposes not an exhaustive analysis of those relationships, but only an approach that might be followed were such a broader analysis to be undertaken. It is argued that these three sites correlate to three intellectual moments – classical, modernist and post-modernist – in the constitution of the human subject within international human rights law. As an initial matter, this correlation can be understood to be straightforward: discourses of sexuality correlated to classicism, discourses of gender correlated to modernism, discourses of sexual orientation correlated to post-modernism. Closer analysis, however, reveals a more complex set of relationships, in which each of the three sites corresponds to each of the three intellectual moments. None of the three sites is `pure'. Each retains an ongoing dialogue with the others and within itself.

scholarly journals Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities: An Analysis of the Contemporary Laws and Literature

2018 ◽  
pp. 165-175
Author(s):  
Dhruba Yonzon
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Periodic Review ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Gender Identities ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
And Gender

Where the expression of sexual orientation and gender identities is one of the fundamental human rights of an individual, there many people still face threat to their liberty and to their lives. Culture and religion play a vital role in establishing such detrimental ideologies; where, despite the understanding that every human being is born equal in freedom and in dignity, millions of queer people are deprived of their right, therefore being discriminated and at worst being persecuted with a simple reasoning that homosexuality is “unnatural” and is a “sin”. This paper will analyze the response of several nations in the Universal Periodic Review regarding their discriminatory law against the LGBT+ (it denotes – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender including other member of the queer community, hereafter "LGBT+") individual. Further, the paper will establish how media and literature have misled to the general public reinforcing ideas that being anything other than “straight” or “cis-gendered” is not “normal” and could be never, which allows States to opt for these inhumane treatments against the LBGT+ people without any recourse. At the end, the paper puts forth approaches to properly implement international human rights law in protection of LGBT+ individuals in law and in daily life.

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