Prof. Stephen Whittle
The School of Law, Manchester Metropolitan University
s.t.whittle@mmu.ac.uk
• The First Magna Carta of the Homosexual Rights
Has Been Released in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• a Milestone for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender Rights (Human Rights Watch)
• The Yogyakarta Principles are revolutionary
because they visualize how bad the situation in
the world is for gays, lesbians, bisexuals,
transgender and intersex people (Boris Dittrich)
Yogyakarta Principles
• a response to the well-documented patterns of
abuse
• Intention to outline a set of international
principles relating to Sexual Orientation &
Gender Identity
 Because they did not exist already
 Because the idea of them is constantly refuted
 Because we are constantly refuted
the Application of International Human Rights Law in
Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity:
• extrajudicial executions,
• violence and torture,
• repression of free speech and assembly,
• refusal to allow to adopt or foster, removal of
access to children
• and discrimination in work, health, education,
access to justice, and immigration.
• I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed
with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases, healed by the same
means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and
summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not
bleed?
a universal guide to human rights which
affirm binding international legal
standards with which all States must
comply
With which
all States
must comply
They promise a different future
where all people born free and
equal in dignity and rights can fulfil
that precious birthright
address a broad range of human
rights standards and their
application to issues of sexual
orientation and gender identity
their
Application
WHY?
• The ongoing human rights abuses experienced by
LGBT & I people
• The ongoing abuses experienced by LGBT & I
people
• The failure of the international community to
POLICE their own
 The response is fragmented, and inconsistent
 it falls by the wayside when it comes to foreign
policy objectives
29 Principles and Additional Recommendations
• PRINCIPLE 3. The Right to recognition before the law
• PRINCIPLE 8. The Right to a Fair Trial
• PRINCIPLE 10. The Right to Freedom from Torture and Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
• PRINCIPLE 13. The right to social security and to other social
protection measures
• PRINCIPLE 14. The right to an adequate standard of living
• PRINCIPLE 18. Protection from Medical Abuses
• PRINCIPLE 23. The Right to seek Asylum
• PRINCIPLE 24. The Right to Found a Family
• PRINCIPLE 27. The Right to Promote Human Rights
P3. Right to recognition before the law
P10. Freedom from Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment
• Transsexual Prisoner wants sex swop reversal
(The Daily Mirror, 2006)
 Many of the UK’s Trans Prison population are spending
their sentences in a sole occupancy room, next to the
Psychiatric Unit
 It is not solitary – meet other trans prisoners 1 hour a day
 The Valueless Gender Recognitions certificate
P 13. The right to social security and to
other social protection measures
• KB v NHS Pensions Agency (C-117/01) ECJ [2005]
• Linda Grant v. UK (Case 32570/03) ECHR [2006]
• Sarah Margaret Richards v Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions (Case C-423/04) ECJ [2006]
 20+ trans pensioners are still fighting
P 23. The Right to seek Asylum
• UK – the Immigration and Nationality refuse to
develop a policy on Trans asylum seekers
 Each case has to be worked on separately by
teams of volunteers
 Yet nobody has been turned away who has
obtained help
P24. The Right to Found a Family
• It seems only 1 Trans person has been allowed
to adopt
• She is single
• It is an inter-family adoption
 Those trans men and their partners who try to
adopt come up against systematic law breaking
by social care workers – and never get past the
assessment stage
Inciting hatred against Trans people
• Most Homophobia is Transphobic
• Trans people self-protect and behave defensively because they are
living in fear.
•

73% of respondents experienced harassment

10% were victims of threatening behaviour when out in public
spaces

47% of trans people do not use public social or leisure facilities for
fear of violence or discrimination

18.5% of those who had interactions with the police felt they were
not treated appropriately.
Announced Queen’s speech Nov 6th – as a possibility
P 7. Right to Freedom from Arbitrary deprivation
of liberty
• The Story of Phyllis and all those like her
• The Trans person is the victim in nearly all cases
– so why do we arrest them
Were we unanimous?
• Did we disagree?
• P 18. PROTECTION FROM MEDICAL ABUSES

Take all necessary legislative, administrative and other
measures to ensure that no child’s body is irreversibly altered
by medical procedures in an attempt to impose a gender
identity without the full, free and informed consent of the child
in accordance with the age and maturity of the child and guided
by the principle that in all actions concerning children, the best
interests of the child shall be a primary consideration
Intersex Babies and Children
• Who knows / decides the best interests of babies
and children born with intersex conditions
 The Surgeons who take a conservative position
• – it will cause irrevocable harm if a child goes to school
with visibly different genitals
 The parents who listen to doctors
• - assume doctor knows best
• - provide consent to surgical alteration of the genitals.