Criminalization on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Reframing the Dominant Human Rights Discourse to include Freedom from Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment

This article explores the question of whether Islamic law and universal human rights are compatible. It begins with an overview of human rights discourse after the Second World War before discussing Islamic human rights declarations and the claims of Muslim apologists regarding human rights, along with challenges to Muslim apologetics in human rights discourse. It then considers the issues of gender and gender equality, feminism, and freedom of religion in relation to human rights. It also examines four basic scholarly orientations to the topic of Islam and human rights since the end of the Second World War: a model that privileges a secular (non-religious) paradigm for rights; a Muslim apologist model, which privileges a purely “Islamic” conception of rights over secular models; a Marxist/postcolonial critique of rights as a western imposition of power; and a Muslim reformist paradigm of rights that highlights points of continuity between western legal and Muslim legal traditions.

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11. Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Human Rights

Human Rights: Politics and Practice ◽

10.1093/hepl/9780198708766.003.0012 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Christine (Cricket) Keating ◽

Cynthia Burack

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Sexual Orientation ◽

Civil Society ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Interpersonal Violence ◽

Important Development ◽

Queer People ◽

And Gender ◽

Rights Issues

This chapter examines the issue of the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer people (LGBTI). In recent years, LGBTI groups have used the language and frameworks of human rights to organize against state, civil society, religious, and interpersonal violence and discrimination. The broadening of the human rights framework to address issues of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) has been an important development in both the human rights and the LGBTI movements. The chapter begins with a discussion of SOGI rights as human rights, focusing on questions such as the central human rights issues for LGBTI people; how these groups have organized to address these challenges through a human rights framework; and the challenges faced by LGBTI human rights advocates and what successes they have had. It also considers critiques of SOGI human rights activism and concludes with a case study of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

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Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in International Institutions

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1277 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

M. Joel Voss

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Sexual Orientation ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Political Institutions ◽

International Institutions ◽

International Institution ◽

Incremental Change ◽

The World ◽

And Gender ◽

Rights Issues

The human rights of LGBTI persons are being contested across the world—both within states and across regions. Despite decades of incremental change, in many states, LGBTI activists are beginning to rapidly advance their normative agendas, particularly in the context of protection against violence and discrimination. However, consistent backlash and opposition to LGBTI advocacy remains. Notwithstanding decades of silence on LGBTI rights, international institutions are also beginning to rapidly include sexual orientation and gender identity in their work as well. Institutions that consist primarily of independent experts and that focus on narrower human rights issues have been especially active in including sexual orientation and gender identity in their work, either formally or informally. At the same time, largely political institutions have generally lagged behind their counterparts. Scholarship on both sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) advocacy and contestation have also lagged behind political and legal developments at international institutions. Although a few works exist, particularly on the UN Human Rights Council, there are numerous other institutions that have been understudied. Further, research on the implementation of international SOGI policies has also been largely absent. SOGI advocacy and contestation continues across nearly every major international institution. Research agendas, either qualitative or quantitative are sorely needed to help better predict and explain the advancement or retreat of SOGI in international institutions and within domestic contexts.

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Final Report: Reference on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law ◽

10.1163/157237410x12879969556832 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 82-81

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Sexual Orientation ◽

Gender Identity ◽

Final Report ◽

And Gender

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Theorizing the Politics of (Homo)Sexualities across Cultures

10.5406/illinois/9780252037726.003.0010 ◽

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.

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