[From the web] OHCHR report on SOGI

OHCHR report on SOGI Dear friends and colleagues, As you will be aware, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has just released a ground-breaking report on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity! Copies of the report (UN document number A/HRC/19/41) are available at: www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/19session/reports.htm The report is currently available in…

Human Rights Online Philippines

December 18, 2011

2–3 minutes

ARC International, Gender identity, LGBT, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, Sexual orientation, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council

OHCHR report on SOGI

Dear friends and colleagues,

As you will be aware, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has just released a ground-breaking report on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity!

Copies of the report (UN document number A/HRC/19/41) are available at:

www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/19session/reports.htm

The report is currently available in English, Spanish, Russian and Arabic, and versions in the remaining UN languages (French and Chinese) will be added as they become available.

Various language versions of the report may also be accessed directly through the following links:

Click to access A.HRC.19.41_English.pdf

Click to access A.HRC.19.41_Spanish.pdf

Click to access A.HRC.19.41_Russian.pdf

Click to access A.HRC.19.41_Arabic.pdf

This is the first ever report of the UN to tackle the subject of discrimination and violence targeted against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The report affirms that governments have the duty to protect all persons from discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity under international human rights law.

The UN Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, to prepare the study in a resolution in June of this year. The findings of the report are due to be presented and discussed by governments at the Human Rights Council in March 2012.

We attach here a background document providing additional information on the report, as well as a sample press release, and another NGO press release with a selection of quotes inserted.

Should you wish to, please feel free to:

· draw upon the report to support your local or regional advocacy priorities;

· modify the press release to publicise the report – the NGO release contains some quotes. Feel free to adapt it, edit it, insert your own quotes, or develop your own materials to ensure it is as relevant as possible to your own context;

· circulate the OHCHR report broadly – for example to NGOs, policy makers, or national human rights institutions;

· urge your government to implement the recommendations and engage constructively in the March panel.

In line with the OHCHR’s standard policy regarding reports to the Human Rights Council, the Office will not be seeking to actively promote the report in the media or in public before it comes before the Council at its next session in March. Nevertheless, the OHCHR press officers have been authorized to respond to any media enquiries that may arise. The contact information for relevant OHCHR staff in Geneva and New York is as follows:

Fred Kirungi (OHCHR New York): kirungi@un.org. Tel. +1 917 367 3431
Rupert Colville (OHCHR Geneva): rcolville@ohchr.org. Tel. +41 22 917 9767

Contact information for OHCHR presences in the field is also available at:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/Pages/MapOfficesIndex.aspx

We hope this report will provide additional legitimacy in our collective struggle towards the full enjoyment of human rights of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Best wishes,
Sheherezade.

—
Sheherezade Kara
ARC International

mobile: +41 (0) 78 834 9916
office: +41 (0) 22 919 7114