UN appoints first expert on LGBT discrimination

© Abir Anwar via Flickr

The UN has appointed its first ever expert on LGBT rights and issues around the world, Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn.

by GT

 3rd October 2016  

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The Human Rights Council has hired professor Muntarbhorn to investigate sexuality and gender based violence and discrimination. The international law professor has been a member of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria since 2012, and was a UN special investigator on North Korea and on child prostitution and pornography.

Vitit, who is an international law professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, has served on several UN bodies, including the council’s Commission of Inquiry on Syria, and was also the special rapporteur on North Korea and on child prostitution and child pornography.

Previously, he co-chaired a meeting of experts that adopted the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

 

Muntarbhorn also took part in a meeting that led to the application of the Yogyakarta Principles to fight gender and sexuality discrimination. 

Human rights experts have welcomed the appointment.

Human Rights Watch’s Geneva director, John Fisher, said on Friday that Vitit’s appointment “made history” and “will bring much-needed attention to human rights violations against LGBT people in all regions of the world.”

Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn

 

 
The professor’s mission for the next three years will be the active investigation of abuse, something the Human Rights watch director, John Fisher say “will bring much-needed attention to human rights violations against LGBT people in all regions of the world.”

The UN agreed on the LGBT-focused role in June, after the 47-member council voted to adopt the resolution, with 23 nations in favor and 18 against with six abstentions.

 

 
Renato Sabbadin, executive director of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association believes the appointment was much needed. “Never has there been a more urgent need to safeguard the human rights of LGBTI persons around the world” he said.

While Human Rights Campaign Global director Ty Cobb described the move as “a huge step forward for LGBTQ human rights worldwide.”

In a comment to Reuters on the newly-created role, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) said it would help give justice to LGBTI people who have been attacked, abused or discriminated against.

In a 2015 report on crimes against LGBTI people, the UN found that hundreds of LGBTI people have been killed and thousands more injured over the past few years, in attacks ranging from knife attacks to stoning.
 

Read more articles from GT, here.

Highlights in PINK appeared in The Asian Correspondent on October 1, 2016