On 6 June, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) made a submission on the killing of LGBTIQ+ persons, in response to a call for inputs by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. These submissions will be used to draft a report by the Special Rapporteur which will be presented at the 79th session of the General Assembly in September 2024.
The ICJ’s submission focuses on specific situations in Pakistan and Uganda and offers insights into the causes of ongoing violence and killings of LGBTIQ+ persons in the two countries. The ICJ welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Special Rapporteur’s report which will provide evidence-based recommendations to the UN General Assembly, to address the risk of unlawful deaths of LGBTIQ+ persons worldwide.
The submission considers several points raised in the call for inputs and offers examples from Pakistan and Uganda of:
- The laws, institutions, policies, and practices that may violate international human rights law obligations regarding the right to life of LGBTIQ+ persons.
- Existing laws, institutions, policies, and practices that govern the investigation and prevention of potentially unlawful deaths of LGBTIQ+ persons.
- Existing laws, institutions, policies, and practices that fail to, or appear to fail to, protect the right to life of LGBTIQ+ persons.
- Instances from 2020 to 2024 where there have been failures to respect and protect the right to life of LGBTIQ+ persons.
LGBTIQ+ people in Pakistan face significant human rights violations based on their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression or sex characteristics (SOGIESC). Data collected by the ICJ and partner organizations show that at least 45 transgender people were killed in Pakistan from August 2019 to March 2024. Similarly, Uganda has historically been hostile to LGBTIQ+ persons. Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), 2023, is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTIQ+ laws in the world, introducing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
ICJ’s recommendations to reduce human rights violations and abuses, including unlawful killings faced by LGBTIQ+ people in Pakistan and Uganda, include
- For Pakistan:
- Ensure prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigations and prosecutions of all allegations of unlawful killings and other violent offences on the basis of SOGIESC.
- Conduct periodic sensitization of investigating officers, prosecutors, and judiciary on SOGIESC.
- For Uganda:
- Repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act in its entirety.
- Repeal discriminatory and hateful provisions in the Penal Code.
Download:
[Submission] IICJ’s submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
Additional resources
[Briefing Paper] Pakistan: Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 (March 2020)