24 Towards the Effective Protection of LGBTI Persons Deprived of Liberty 2. International legal standards Despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ unequivocal pronouncement that “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” States have historically failed to protect LGBTI persons from violence and discrimination — and particularly so in the context of deprivation of liberty. This failure does not mean that the creation of new rights is required in order to ensure the protection of LGBTI persons, but rather that already existing, well established obligations in international human rights law must be adequately implemented. Non-discrimination is a core principle of international human rights law, but its restrictive interpretation has often led to the exclusion of LGBTI persons. While key human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) do not explicitly refer to sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited grounds for discrimination11, jurisprudence and authoritative interpretations by treaty bodies have now established that the express prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of “other status” —which is consistently enumerated among the non-exhaustive prohibited grounds for discrimination in human rights treaties—must be read to include discrimination based on sexual orientation12 and gender identity13. Sexual orientation and gender identity are integral to everyone’s dignity and humanity and therefore cannot be a basis for discrimination. In response to the failure to apply international human rights law to adequately protect LGBTI persons, and to the fragmented response from the international community to the need to protect them from Article 26 of the ICCPR states that “[a]ll persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” 12 In 1994, States’ obligation to protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientationwas spelled out for the first time by a treaty body. See UN Human Rights Committee, Toonen v. Australia, Communication No. 488/1992, U.N. Doc CCPR/C/50/D/488/1992 (1994). See also CCPR, General Comment N°35 (2014), para. 3. 13 See inter alia, CESC General Comment N°2, para 32; CRC General Comment N°13 (2011), para. 60 and 72(g), CAT General Comment N°2, para. 21, CEDAW, General Recommendation N°28, para. 18. 11