a better understanding of traditional values for humankind”.247 The resolution can be
considered to undermine LGBT rights as, underpinning the resolution, is an argument
that homosexuality is an issue of morality and not of rights.248
Equality and non-discrimination are basic principles of international human rights law
and recent authoritative and expert interpretations from relevant treaty monitoring
bodies have explicitly included gender identity, as a prohibited ground. For example, the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment No. 20 noted:
“…gender identity is recognized as among the prohibited grounds of discrimination;
for example, persons who are transgender, transsexual or intersex often face serious
human rights violations, such as harassment in schools or in the workplace.”249
In addition, in General Recommendation No.28 on the core obligations of States parties,
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women emphasizes that the
core obligation of States parties to the Convention is to legally prohibit discrimination,
including that based on sexual orientation and gender identity.250 The Committee on the
Rights of the Child has also interpreted Article 2 of the International Convention on the
Rights of the Child to include gender identity, and emphasizes that States parties must
solve the problems of bias, vulnerability or marginalization experienced by groups of
children, including those who are lesbian, gay, transgender or transsexual.251
Aside from General Comments, the UN’s treaty bodies have, in their concluding
observations, recommendations, and other documents consistently held that sexual
orientation and gender identity are prohibited grounds of discrimination under
international law. The reports of the human rights treaty bodies and special procedures
have well documented systematic violence and discrimination directed at people in all
regions because of their sexu