46th session of the Human Rights Council. Statement delivered by Ambassador Anna Jardfelt.
Madame President,
All persons are entitled to the same human rights without discrimination. This should not be a controversial statement. Yet, stigma, discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity persist.
These patterns are worsened by the ongoing pandemic. To break this trend, states must explicitly address the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination affecting LGBTI-persons and ensure their full and equal enjoyment of human rights.
Measures to mitigate the pandemic must neither discriminate against LGBTI persons nor be used as a pretext to reduce democratic space. This includes the space for defenders of LGBTI-persons’ enjoyment of human rights and for organizations providing support for LGBTI persons. Any emergency measures must be necessary, proportionate, non-discriminatory, time-limited and in accordance with obligations under international human rights law.
LGBTI persons are often at heightened risk of being subjected to violence. Rather than being protected by the law, consensual same-gender relationships remain criminalized in almost 70 states. It is utterly unacceptable that some states continue to apply the death penalty for such relationships. Love is not a crime. Love is love.
I thank you.