The Universal Declaration of Human Rights' 75th anniversary comes amid many profound challenges to human rights worldwide. Yet the Declaration's commitment to all persons' dignity and human rights still deserves recognition as a north star for our shared future, including the future of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons.
As the United States' special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons and senior advisor to the special envoy, we see every day how being LGBTQI+ can determine a person's ability to enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms, depending on where they live and the overlapping forms of discrimination and hostility they face. We see, too, how U.S. diplomacy presses, visibly and behind the scenes, for protection against negative targeting based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status.
As President Joe Biden told the U.N. General Assembly earlier this year, we must continue working to ensure that "LGBTQI+ people are not prosecuted or targeted with violence because of who they are." These rights are part of our shared humanity, he added, and "when they are absent anywhere, their loss is felt everywhere."
Earlier this year, we met with activists from Uganda, where the Anti-Homosexuality Act requires individuals to report anyone suspected of "homosexual behavior," imposes a 20-year prison sentence for "promotion" of homosexuality, and even imposes the death penalty in certain cases. As a recent U.S. business advisory noted, because of the law, landlords are reportedly evicting private and commercial tenants on suspicion of being LGBTQI+.
In September, we met with a lesbian activist from the Kyrgyz Republic, where LGBTQI+ organizations are facing increased restrictions under the state's anti-propaganda law. We also met a transgender woman from Indonesia who detailed severe risks to safety and livelihood faced by the transgender community there. Their experiences reflect the heartbreaking repression that LGBTQI+ persons often face from both governments and local communities when law enforcement refuses to provide protection.
Yet there is also hope, including a growing number of nations overturning laws criminalizing LGBTQI+ relationships. In the past two years, courts in five countries have struck down their sodomy laws—Mauritius just two months ago, and Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Singapore in 2022, while Vietnam officially rejected designation of LGBTQI+ identities and relationships as medically or psychologically abnormal.
We have also seen progress on the rights of transgender individuals, including from Japan's Supreme Court in July 2023, when it declared that it was "extremely inappropriate" for a government ministry to tell its transgender employee that if she wanted to use a women's restroom, she had to use one at least two floors away.
Likewise, for intersex persons, progress has been strong. Ten years ago, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture condemned medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants and children. Since then, Malta, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Kenya, and Spain have all passed laws to protect intersex persons' bodily integrity.
Importantly, the United Nations, like the United States, has made clear that human rights include the rights of LGBTQI+ persons. In 2003, the U.N. General Assembly first recognized the need for states to provide protection based on sexual orientation in its resolution on extrajudicial killings, which it later extended to cover gender identity. More recently, the General Assembly adopted a resolution urging states to eliminate discrimination, including barriers based on sexual orientation and gender identity to their citizens' participation in public affairs. U.N. entities have amplified these commitments, and the U.N. Human Rights Council's Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity has documented evidence of the devastating disregard for the humanity of LGBTQI+ persons, along with bright spots that provide hope for the future.
"Each assault on LGBTQI+ people is an assault on human rights and the values we hold dear," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated recently, urging countries around the world "to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and end the criminalization of consensual same-sex relations and transgender people. Being yourself should never be a crime."
Still, some argue that progress on the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons should be stopped or even reversed, while others single out LGBTQI+ persons for fury and mob violence.
This hostility makes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' commitment to our shared humanity, including for LGBTQI+ persons, all the more important. Following World War II, the nations of the world adopted the Declaration, knowing that protecting human rights would be difficult but essential. We honor their aspirations by continuing to challenge discrimination and violence, promoting legal and social protections, and doing all we can to move the world closer to a place that recognizes—without exception—the inherent dignity and human rights of all persons.
Jessica Stern is the U.S. special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons.
Suzanne Goldberg is senior advisor to the special envoy.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
