UN RC Opening Speech - Effective Inclusion of LGBTIQ Persons

Good morning Minister Comic, EU Ambassador, Council of Europe Head of Office, director of Civil Rights Defenders. 

I thank everyone present today, and all those participating to the different events this week and next, for your tenacity and intention to support Serbia on this important journey towards less discrimination and more social inclusion, particularly towards the LGBT community.

I will start by giving a bit of a global overview on the LGBT situation.

Rights affecting the LGBTQ+ community vary greatly by country or jurisdiction. As of January 2021, 29 countries recognized same-sex marriage. By contrast, not counting non-state actors and extrajudicial killings, only one country is believed to impose the death penalty on consensual same-sex sexual acts. In Europe 21 out of 27 countries recognise ss unions, 13 recognise marriage, 14 adoption. Rules and laws related to different sexual orientations have existed for more than 2500 years, including in the military sphere, but the wide scope of laws affecting the LGBT community has been developed mostly in the past 10 to 15 years.

In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed its first resolution recognizing LGBT rights, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report documenting violations of the rights of LGBT people, including hate crimes, criminalization of same sex activity, and discrimination. Following the issuance of the report, the United Nations urged all countries which had not yet done so to enact laws protecting basic LGBT rights. The HR Council has not been always unified (member states) on how to approach on this matter. 

There is no standalone mechanism for the protection of LGBTI rights (like there is for disability, women, refugees, children, etc). However, nowadays, all international human rights standards and non-discrimination provisions are applied and promoted more explicitly also towards LGBTI equality. the UN special rapporteur on sexual orientation and gender identity is also a relatively new

mechanism.

Another global observation is that advances made in some parts of the world may have led to backlash in other parts of the world. And in the past couple of years, we have seen some retrograde practices and policies that aim to disable the very value of diversity, equality universality of rights, often under the pretense that LGBTQ+ people are a threat to traditional notions of the family, society and the nation.

Such discrepancy of acceptance and guarantees shows just how fragile and difficult our battle for human rights can be.

The topic today is around Inclusion. In Serbia, a recent survey showed that more than 50% of people consider that the LGBT is the most discriminated community in the country. So while we jointly work on the much discussed law regulating same sex unions in Serbia, we must also cover a lot of ground related to all other areas of exclusions and to the multiple risks that the LGBT community faces - violence, homophobic and transphobic hate speech, social unacceptance, discrimination at the workplace etc.

I see the work around inclusion grounded in 4 pillars:

1. The laws, by-laws, and policies, which the government has the duty to develop or adjust. As the minister said in other circumstances for the Roma community, it is not just a matter of having one or 2 laws focusing on the LGBT, but all relevant laws on social matters, education, housing, employment, etc, should be designed to be inclusive for the LGBT community.

2. The second pillar is the public institutions and the civil society and the services that they provide. In Serbia, access is for all, but the range of services might not be available, particularly for specific health services. The availability of support services for the LGBT community is also not ensured around the country, which makes it harder for people outside main urban centers.

3. The third pillar is behaviours, and that is probably the hardest one to address. Behaviours as attitude of service providers in the institutions, behaviours of the media, of certain politicians, of the general population. This is changing in Serbia, but more remains to be done obviously. Discriminatory behaviours are often generated by fear and ignorance. As minister said before, when we move the conversation away from sexual orientation towards the discrimination faced in daily lives, people’s attitude change. And this is where visibility about the issue is important. In France, the topic of SS marriage faced one of the hardest resistance in Europe. pic to fight for. And within 8 years of this law being passed, the % of people favorable to same sex marriage went from 50% to 80%. This goes to show that increased visibility, concrete measures supporting equality, empowerment and effectively prohibiting discrimination will eventually have a wider impact, not only to a smaller community in question. 

4. Finally, the fourth pillar is about individuals, who are, or feel discriminated against, and excluded. And here let me share some personal experience. I have interacted with the LGBT community in a number of countries, such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India, the US, France and more. There is always a common thread. The challenges individuals face are both external and contextual – their family, the schools, the country, etc - and internal – self value, lack of confidence, confusion, fear, isolation, depression, anger. I have witnessed the journey of young trans individuals, who despite the support of their family and community, have been struggling for years with their identity, their place in society, their emotional life, and the physical changes that they went through. So It is my hope that while we continue to work jointly on addressing external factors of discriminations, hate and violence, we also focus on the specific, individual support in many different ways, to allow each person develop into a confident and fulfilled community member.

To conclude: We should use this momentum with courage and work together to address resistance and incomprehension, increase visibility, on the basis of equality of rights and dignity for all. As the UN, and with our partners, we will continue to work on core human rights standards and protection mechanisms, on effective implementation of policies, we will reach to diverse audiences through media and community platforms, always with this idea to nurture a culture of dialogue and equality. As the UN resident coordinator, I am privileged to have a great team for human rights, and all UN agencies are committed to this agenda. We will support the community and the institutions to create partnerships for diversity and equality, fully in line with the UN Human Rights standards and conventions, the Leave No One Principle of Agenda 2030, and equally importantly, with the European values, principles and legal framework.

I Wish everyone a happy Belgrade Pride Week ! Hvala