Sexuality and Gender Diversity Rights in Global Human Rights Law

Since 1955, 320 cases on sexuality and gender diversity rights have been interpreted and considered by the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and several United Nations Committees, including the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. This thesis critically analyses this jurisprudence by developing an analytical framework to map, measure and evaluate the extent to which it protects and promotes the rights of sexual minorities and gender diverse people. The initial chapters establish this analytical framework and comprehensively review the theoretical and empirical literature on sexuality and gender diversity, identifying common and essential themes. The literature review considers theoretical works by queer theorists, intersectional scholars, and empirical literature in psychology, anthropology, ethnography and linguistics. These works highlight several critical themes that are developed into three analytical principles used to analyse the jurisprudence.Principle A states that courts and committees must recognise that sexuality and gender diversity concepts are socially constructed, complex and diverse. Principle B states that courts and committees must recognise the detrimental impacts of discrimination, prejudice and violence. Principle B also states that courts and committees must recognise and sanction the use of prejudicial stereotypes and assumptions about sexuality and gender diversity, as these concepts underpin discrimination, prejudice and violence. Principle C states that courts and committees should prioritise self-determination in cases involving sexuality or gender diversity rights. The analytical framework is used to undertake a rigorous, empirically grounded evaluation of how the existing system succeeds and fails to protect sexuality and gender diversity rights.