Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION  

Brussels, 17 June 2010

11179/10

LIMITE

COHOM 162
PESC 804

From: Working Party on Human Rights
To: Political and Security Committee
Subject: Toolkit to Promote and Protect the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People


1. On 8 June 2010 the Working Party on Human Rights adopted the Toolkit to Promote and Protect the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People, as set out in the Annex.

2. The PSC is invited to take note of the LGBT Toolkit. This document will help the EU institutions, EU Member State capitals, EU Delegations, Representations and Embassies to react proactively to violations of the human rights of LGBT people, and to address structural causes behind these violations.


 

The document aims to provide staff in the EU Headquarters, EU Member States’ capitals, EU Delegations, Representations and Embassies with an operational set of tools to be used in contacts with third countries, as well as with international and civil society organisations, in order to promote and protect the human rights enjoyed by LGBT people within its external action. It seeks to enable the EU to proactively react to cases of human rights violations of LGBT people and to structural causes behind these violations. By doing so, the Toolkit will further contribute to reinforcing and supporting the EU’s human rights policy in general.

Gender identity and sexual orientation continue to be used as justifications for serious human rights violations around the world. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people constitute a vulnerable group and continue to fall victims of persecution, discrimination and gross ill-treatment, often involving extreme forms of violence. In several countries, sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex are considered a crime and punished with imprisonment or with the death penalty.

The EU strongly supports the entitlement by all individuals, without discrimination, to enjoy the full range of human rights. The promotion and protection of human rights features as a key objective of the EU’s external action. Through the different tools available to it within its external action, including the financial instruments available both through the EU institutions and the Member States, the EU will seek to actively promote and protect the enjoyment of all human rights by LGBT people.

This document takes full account of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. The Guidelines on the death penalty, on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, on human rights defenders and on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them are particularly relevant.