The Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Monday released a report
detailing the violence and discrimination LGBT people face around the
world.
According to the report, titled
Discrimination
and Violence Against Individuals Based on Their Sexual Orientation
and Gender Identity, “hundreds of people have been killed
and thousands more injured in brutal, violent attacks” since 2011.
Its authors noted that the progress in
some countries is “overshadowed by continuing, serious and
widespread human rights violations perpetrated, too often with
impunity, against individuals based on their sexual orientation and
gender identity.”
“Other documented violations include
torture, arbitrary detention, denial of rights to assembly and
expression and discrimination in health care, education, employment
and housing,” reads the report. “These and related abuses
warrant a concerted response from governments, legislatures, regional
organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society,
as well as from United Nations bodies – the Human Rights Council
included.”
Last fall, the United Nations Human
Rights Council (UNHRC), the inter-governmental body tasked with
protecting human rights around the world, approved a resolution
condemning violence against people based on sexual orientation or
gender identity. But despite its mandate, only 25 out of the body's
47 members voted for the resolution. The OHCHR prepared the 22-page
report at the UNHRC's request.
The report calls on nations to abolish
laws outlawing consensual gay sex, approve anti-LGBT hate crimes laws
and extend legal protections to same-sex couples and their children.
Other recommendations include outlawing therapies that aim to alter
the sexual orientation or gender identity of an individual.