The ICJ condemns the deliberate misrepresentation of international human rights law
Geneva, Switzerland – The International Commission of Jurists today condemned the misrepresentation of international human rights law by some member States of the UN Human Rights Council. At the Panel on discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity , held today at the Human Rights Council, Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Mauritania (on behalf of the Arab Group) and Senegal (on behalf of the African Group) claimed that “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” were new concepts that had no legal foundation in any international human rights instrument. These States further claimed that introducing such concepts undermine the human rights framework. At the beginning of the Panel, the OIC delegations expressed their opposition by walking out of the Human Rights Council. Some of these delegations later returned to the Council. The ICJ says that such statements are a deliberate mischaracterizat...