In a recent report, the United Nations Committee expresses “deep concern” over several U.S. human and civil rights abuses, including the continued rise in state-level discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
Due to a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. Human Rights Committee ( HRC ) concluded its review of the state of human rights in the United States on November3. Despite signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1992, the agency’s report identified 29 unique “matters of problem” in which the United States continues to violate it. The commission expressed worry over “discriminatory treatment that people continue to face based on their sexual orientation or gender identity” in particular.
Committee members repeatedly expressed concern over unchallenged anti-EQL+ bias by state institutions, which has proliferated across the nation in recent years, despite the report’s praise for some new federal measures, such as the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act. The report specifically criticized laws, such as Florida’s now-infamous” Do n’t Say Gay” law, which “ban and, in some cases, criminalize gender-affirming health care for transgender persons” and those that “limit discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity issues in school.”
The commission recommended that the” United States” take all necessary steps to ensure that state laws that discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity are repealed. It also advised the Biden administration to “intensify its efforts to combat crime against and bias” toward LGBTQ+ persons. Additionally, it urged the United States to enhance its hate violence data collection and offer victims and their families “full restitution.”
The commission also pointed out more than 20 other areas where the United States immediately needs to address human rights violations, such as the policing of racism, the criminalization of homelessness, drone bombings abroad, and murdered and missing Aboriginal women. The document also criticized the United States for failing to defend individual rights in places like Guam and Puerto Rico that it has control over. Human rights activists claim that despite a long list of serious issues, U.S. ambassadors did not take the council or its record seriously, particularly since they dealt with policing and military matters.
Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program Jamil Dakwar criticized what he called “scripted, common, and frequently meaningless responses” from the U.S. delegation, saying that “at times it seemed that AI-generated responses would have been more qualitative.” The responses were also described as “deeply disappointing” by Andrea Guerrero, executive director of the community activist organization Alliance San Diego ( which organized a protest inside the hearing room on its final day ).
Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog organization, stated in a speech last week that” The Committee’s results may serve as an alert contact for state and federal lawmakers in the United States.” State legislators should stop deliberately violating US human rights obligations, overturn unfair laws, and the federal government should pass comprehensive legislation to protect LGBT people’s rights and uphold current civil and humanitarian rights guarantees, according to an intense backlash.
This is by no means the first instance of LGBTQ+ right crimes in the United States that have received worldwide attention. Victor Madrigal- Borloz, a U.N. Independent Expert, came to the conclusion last year that “equality is not within achieve, and frequently never perhaps within sight,” for many LGBTQ+ Americans.
According to Madrigal-Borloz at the time,” the evidence demonstrates that these actions consistently rely on biased and challenging views of LGBT people, particularly transgender children and youth, and seek to exploit their lives for political gain.”
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