empowered women

INTRODUCTION. The struggle to bring greater international scrutiny to the human rights plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people reached a landmark moment in 2016 with the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council to create a dedicated special procedures mandate an Independent Expert on protection from violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Independent Expert has many tasks, including investigating and reporting on human rights violations against LGBT people, assessing compliance with applicable international human rights instruments in this context, and making recommendations to States and other stakeholders as appropriate. The mandate builds on the work of existing United Nations human rights mechanisms, including special procedures and treaty bodies, the majority of which have addressed these issues to some extent in the context of their own, respective mandates. The establishment of this mandate follows several years of increasing interest across the United Nations human rights system on the issue of human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2011 and 2014, the Human Rights Council passed resolutions in which it expressed concern regarding violence and discrimination against LGBT persons and requested reports from the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The High Commissioner’s two reports, published in 2012 and 2015 respectively, pointed to a pattern of systematic violence and discrimination directed at LGBTI4 people in all regions from discrimination in employment, health care and education, to criminalization and targeted physical attacks, even killings. The reports contain recommendations addressed to States designed to strengthen protection of the human rights of LGBTI persons. There has been an increase in awareness and attention paid to the human rights of intersex people over the last few years. A milestone was celebrated in September 2015, with the first United Nations Expert meeting on ending human rights violations against intersex persons, and a joint call by United Nations and regional human rights experts in October 2016 for governments to prohibit human rights violations committed against intersex children The United Nations special procedures and treaty bodies are increasingly raising concerns about abuses against intersex people, and recommending that States address these issues. The legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of LGBTI people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights treaties, and customary international law. All people, irrespective of sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics,are entitled to enjoy the protections provided by international human rights law, including rights to life, security of person and privacy, the right to be free from torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, the right to be free from discrimination, equality before the law, and the right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The purpose of this publication is to set out the core obligations that States have towards LGBTI persons, and to describe how United Nations mechanisms have applied international law in these contexts. For more than two decades, United Nations human rights treaty bodies and special procedures have documented violations of the human rights of LGBT, and more recently, intersex people, and analyzed State compliance with international human rights law. The sections that follow summarize their findings and advice to help States take the necessary steps to meet their fundamental human rights obligations. Body. Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision making, and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender. Gender equality is the goal, while gender neutrality and gender equity are practices and ways of thinking that help in achieving the goal. Gender parity, which is used to measure gender balance in a given situation, can aid in achieving gender equality but is not the goal in and of itself. Gender equality is more than just equal representation, it is strongly tied to women's rights, and often requires policy changes. Freedom is where you have color in your life. You live with your family and friends and have the right to speak up, with nothing holding you back. When you don't have freedom you have no color in your life, it is so dark and cold. You are apart from your loved ones and struggle to have your rights. We all have rights to live without basing on the gender identity; Gender identity reflects a deeply felt and experienced sense of one’s own gender. Most people have a gender identity, which is part of their overall identity. A person’s gender identity may or may not be aligned with the sex assigned to them at birth. Trans and transgender are both umbrella terms used to describe people with a wide range of gender expressions and identities including transsexual people, people who cross-dress, people who identify as third gender, people who identify outside of the male/female binary, and others whose appearance and characteristics are perceived as gender atypical and whose sense of their own gender is different to the sex that they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people seek surgery or take hormones to bring their body into alignment with their gender identity; others do not. Trans people may have any sexual orientation and sex characteristics. Cisgender (sometimes shortened to “cis”) is a term used to describe people whose sense of their own gender is aligned with the sex that they were assigned at birth. Some people identify as agender and/or reject the idea of a fixed gender identity. Sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics are not the same. They are each distinct, but intersecting aspects of a person. It is important to respect people’s choice of terms, names and pronouns to refer to themselves. While this publication predominantly uses the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex, many of the practices, gaps and challenges highlighted herein are also relevant to addressing violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics against people who identify with or use other terms. While lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people face different challenges, they share a common risk of human rights violations because they have identities, expressions, behaviors or bodies that are perceived to transgress dominant gender norms and roles, including the binary system of male/female. This publication addresses their situations together. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people are diverse populations that not only must contend with human rights violations on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or sex characteristics, but also face multiple and intersecting discrimination and violence based on skin color, ethnic origin, sex, gender, disability, age, migratory status, family status, nationality, religion, health status, income level, and other grounds. Indeed, abuse, violence and discrimination become more rife where such factors interplay and are compounded. We need to respect each others identity because we don’t know the whole story of their lives we can’t judge them with their gender identities. We should listen to their story before judging them.