ADDRESSING VULNERABILITIES OF LGBT PERSONS IN DETENTION Virtual absence of international standards and lack of data The very fact that a country criminalises homosexuality or nonbinary gender identity in itself opens the door to abuse and acts of torture. However, the problem also resides in the absence of legislation providing specific protection to LGBT persons. Thus, only a minority of countries have adopted legislation specifically protecting individuals against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This situation is partly explained by the virtual absence of international standards for the protection of LGBT persons. That is why participants particularly stressed the importance of incorporating into their work the only specific international instrument so far in existence: “The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”. 5 Although these principles are nonbinding, they constitute an internationally recognised reference and contain provisions concerning the right not to be detained arbitrarily, the right not to be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment, and the right to be treated with dignity while in detention. Faced with this near total absence of standards, participants discussed the relevance of the creation of standards or guidelines for LGBT persons deprived of their liberty. Despite the large diversity of contexts and respective situations of LGBT persons in different countries, it was emphasised that the adoption of such standards would strengthen the protection of those concerned and provide the authorities with a better framework to adequately handle this population. The virtual absence of standards is also accompanied by a lack of general knowledge and both quantitative and qualitative data on the topic of sexual diversity in places of detention. Indeed, several participants noted the lack of information concerning the LGBT prison population in their respective countries. This data gap does not mean that problems do not exist. On the contrary, they exist but there is little awareness of them. While transgender detainees seem more “visible” due, in particular, to the detention quarters they are allocated, the difficulties faced by lesbians in detention remain, with few exceptions, largely unknown. 5 http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/ 11