The Yogyakarta Principles are presented in Geneva
A paper from Geneva set out in 2007 what human rights mean for queer people. It still has an impact today.
On 26 March 2007, a document was presented in Geneva that would have a lasting influence on international human rights work. On the sidelines of the session of the UN Human Rights Council, twenty-nine experts from twenty-five countries presented the Yogyakarta Principles. They are named after the Indonesian city where the group had met at Gadjah Mada University in November of the previous year and adopted the text unanimously.
The idea behind them was as simple as it was bold. Instead of demanding new rights, the experts wanted to show what was already in existing international law. Human rights apply to everyone, and therefore also to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. The twenty-nine principles spell this out: from protection against torture and arbitrary detention to the right to privacy, education, work and health. Each principle comes with concrete recommendations to states.
The signatories included well-known names. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was among them, as were judges, special rapporteurs and activists from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. As rapporteur, the Irish jurist Michael O'Flaherty shaped the text decisively.
The principles are not binding under international law, and critics still accuse them of going beyond existing law. They had an impact nonetheless. Courts, national human rights institutions and UN bodies took them up, and for many organisations they became a toolbox. Their definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity were also used far beyond Geneva.
Ten years later, a supplement was added with "YP plus 10". The basic idea remained the same: human rights know no exceptions.