CAT/OP/C/57/4 international law, as clarified by the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. B. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, sexual orientation and gender identity 51. The human rights problems faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons encompass, in varying forms, preconceptions, stereotypes and prejudice in relation to sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and gender expression. 52. Various bodies and organizations have interpreted the term “sex” as referring to biological differences between men and women, 5 physiological characteristics,6 the sum of biological characteristics that define the spectrum of humans as females and males,7 and a biological construct, referring to the genetic, hormonal, anatomical and physiological characteristics on the basis of which a person is labelled at birth as either male or female. 8 53. Gender refers to socially constructed identities, attributes and roles for women and men and society’s social and cultural meaning for those biological differences.9 In that context, gender identity can be understood as each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means) and other expressions of gender, such as dress, speech and mannerisms. 10 Gender identity includes the category of transgenderism or trans, the common denominator of which is that the person’s biological sex and gender identity do not correspond to what is traditionally understood as a match. Subcategories that do not necessarily imply body alterations refer to persons who express their gender identity, either on a permanent or temporary basis, by wearing articles of clothing and adopting the deportment and mannerisms of the gender opposite to the one socially and culturally associated with their biological sex. 54. A person’s sexual orientation is independent from biological sex, and is defined as the capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.11 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 See Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010) on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, para. 5. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20 (2009) on nondiscrimination in economic, social and cultural rights, para. 20. Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), The Right of Young People to Health and Gender Identities: Findings, Trends and Targets for Public Health Action (Washington, D.C., PAHO, 2011), p. 7. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding (Washington, D.C., National Academies Press, 2011), p. 25. See note 5 above. See the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, preamble. Ibid., 6. 11