30 Towards the Effective Protection of LGBTI Persons Deprived of Liberty used to penalize individuals on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity is a mandatory requirement for the prevention of torture against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.23” Laws criminalising diverse gender identities and expressions should also be repealed. Furthermore, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), Human Rights Committee, and Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identify have found that the detention of individuals under laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity in private constitutes a form of arbitrary detention24. Even in countries where such laws are not enforced, they can be used to blackmail and intimidate LGBT people and to serve “social cleansing” purposes such as discouraging LGBT persons to meet in certain areas. Such laws also hinder public health policies and HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in particular in some contexts. Human rights defenders working to combat violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity face aggravated forms of violence and discrimination, in particular in countries that criminalise same-sex relations and diverse gender identities or expressions, as they can face harassment, prosecution and imprisonment only because of their work and activism. Human rights defenders who are LGBT themselves are doubly exposed, as they are not only targeted because of their work, but also because of who they are. Monitoring bodies, in particular NPMs with mandates to “submit proposals and observations concerning existing or draft legislation” (OPCAT, Art. 19 [c]), can contribute to efforts to repeal such laws, not least by recalling States’ non-derogable international human rights obligations with respect to the protection of human dignity and the prevention of torture, in support of decriminalisation. NPMs, Eighth annual report of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, CAT/C/54/2, 26 March 2015, para. 70. 24 WGAD Opinion 7/2002 (Egypt) UN Doc. E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.1 (2002), pp. 68-73, Opinion 22/2006 (Cameroon), UN Doc. A/HRC/4/40/Add.1 (2007), pp. 91-94; CCPR General Comment N°35, CCPR/C/GC/35 (2014), para. 3 and 7, Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, A/HRC/38/43 para. 20(b), p. 5. 23