their group, without any discrimination.”49 Similarly, the UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities emphasizes the need to “promote, protect and
ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms
by all persons with disabilities”.50 According to Article 3 of the UN Convention on
the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), “States
Parties shall take (…) all appropriate measures (…) to ensure the full development
and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise
and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality
with men.”51
41. As regards the ICCPR, the Human Rights Committee has interpreted the non-dis-
crimination provisions in Articles 2 and 26 of the Covenant to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as part of the reference to “sex” as a prohibited ground of discrimination.52 Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5 of the Council of
Europe Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity sets out concrete steps
towards that end.53
42. As such, participating States should take measures to facilitate the enjoyment
of the right to defend human rights by everyone on an equal basis. In doing so,
they may, and in some cases have a duty to, treat people differently where their
49
Article 3.
50 Article 1.
51
CEDAW, Article 3.
52 UN Human Rights Committee Views, Toonen v. Australia, Communication No. 488/1992, U.N. Doc CCPR/
C/50/D/488/1992, para. 8.7. Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty also provides for the European Union to “undertake necessary actions to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation”, and Article 21(2) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights prohibits “any discrimination on any ground”, including on the basis of sexual orientation. Similarly the European Court of Human Rights held in Salgueiro da Silva Mouta v. Portugal (Application no. 33290/96, 21 December 1999) that the protection against discrimination afforded by Article 14 of the
ECHR also covers discrimination based on sexual orientation, noting that the list of grounds for discrimination
in Article 14 of the ECHR was illustrative and not exhaustive, as is shown by the words “any ground such as”.
Furthermore, according to the Explanatory Report to Protocol 12 to the ECHR, which complements Article 14
with a general prohibition of discrimination, the Protocol also protects against discrimination based on sexual
orientation, <http://www.conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Reports/Html/177.htm>, para. 20. In addition, the
Yogyakarta Principles further emphasized that “[e]veryone is entitled to enjoy all human rights without discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.” While the Principles are not a binding OSCE
consensus document, they were developed and adopted by a group of international human rights experts, including eight UN Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, and thus provide useful guidance. See Yogyakarta Principles, “Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity”, principle 2.
53 Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)5, Adopted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on 31 March
2010, <http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/hrpolicy/Publications/LGBT_en.pdf>.
36
Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents