Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in relation to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS NHRIs are official, independent legal institutions established by the State and exercising the powers of the State to promote and protect human rights. They are established by national constitutions or acts of legislatures, guaranteeing their independence from political direction or interference, both governmental and non-governmental. They have broad mandates for the promotion and protection of human rights. They comply with the international minimum standards for NHRIs, the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (the Paris Principles).6 NHRIs are new kinds of institutions, occupying space within the State structure among the three primary institutions of government, parliament and judiciary. They lie between the State and civil society; they are State institutions but independent of government. Because they are a new type of State institution, their natures, roles and responsibilities are still being explored and developed. NHRIs have responsibility for the promotion and protection of all human rights for all people. Their mandates are based on international human rights law that recognises and proclaims the universality of all human rights. On matters relating to international and domestic human rights law, they have broad functions to undertake: • advice • education and awareness raising • research • advocacy • complaint investigation and resolution • monitoring. NHRIs AND PERSONS OF DIVERSE SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY AND SEX CHARACTERISTICS NHRIs work for the human rights of all people. Often an NHRI will identify specific population groups within its country that are especially vulnerable to actual human rights violations or the risk of human rights violations. Many NHRIs identify lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people as being among those groups most at risk. Certainly international reports by United Nations (UN) agencies and mechanisms consistently reveal widespread patterns of human rights violations affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.7 Reports of civil society organisations point consistently to the same conclusions.8 2 6 Commission on Human Rights resolution 1992/54 and General Assembly resolution 48/134. 7 See, for example, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, November 2011, A/HRC/19/41; at http://daccess-ods.un.org/ TMP/9525419.47364807.html; OHCHR, Born free and equal, 2012; at www.asiapacificforum.net/resources/born-free-andequal/; High Commissioner for Human Rights, Discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, May 2015, A/HRC/29/23; at www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/HRC/29/23&referer=/ english/&Lang=E. 8 See, for example, International Commission of Jurists, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Justice: A Comparative Law Casebook; at www.icj.org/sogi-casebook-introduction; Human Rights Watch, Together, Apart: Organizing around Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Worldwide, June 2009; at www.hrw.org/report/2009/06/11/together-apart/organizing-aroundsexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-worldwide; International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now Outright Action International) Violence: Through the lens of lesbians, bisexual women and trans people in Asia, 2014; at www.outrightinternational. org/content/violence-through-lens-lbt-people-asia.