What Are The Yogyakarta Principles?

If you peruse international blogs that cover gender identity and sexual orientation issues, from time to time you'll see a reference to the Yogyakarta Principles.

What are they, you ask? Well, peeps, school is now in session.

In response to well-documented patterns of abuse of GLBT people, from November 6-9, 2006 a distinguished group of international human rights experts met on the campus of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to outline a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The result of that meeting was the Yogyakarta Principles: a universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all nations must comply.

The basic premise is that TBLGI people are all human beings and are equally entitled to human rights. The development of international human rights law has largely ignored them - as racial minorities were once ignored - as women were once ignored - as the disabled were once ignored.

So the people gathered in Yogyakarta logically applied established international human rights principles and made suggestions as to how these 29 principles apply to the situation of LGBTI people around the world.

While the principles acknowledge the primary obligation of various nations to implement human rights, each principle in the official PDF format is accompanied by detailed recommendations to nations and their lawmakers.

The Principles also emphasize that everyone has responsibilities to promote and protect human rights.

There are additional recommendations addressed to the UN human rights system, national human rights institutions, the media, non-governmental organizations, and other interested parties and citizens.

The Yogyakarta Principles are:

Principle 1: The right to the universal enjoyment of human rights

Principle 2. The rights to equality and non discrimination

Principle 3: The right to recognition before the law

Principle 4: The right to life

Principle 5: The right to security of the person

Principle 6: The right to privacy

Principle 7: The right to freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty

Principle 8: The right to a fair trial

Principle 9: The right to treatment with humanity while in detention

Principle 10: The right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment

Principle 11: The right to protection from all forms of exploitation, sale and trafficking of human beings

Principle 12: The right to work

Principle 13: The right to social security and to other social protection measures

Principle 14: The right to an adequate standard of living

Principle 15: The right to adequate housing

Principle 16: The right to education

Principle 17: The right to the highest attainable standard of health

Principle 18: Protection from medical abuses

Principle 19: The right to freedom of opinion and expression

Principle 20: The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association

Principle 21: The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion

Principle 22: The right to freedom of movement

Principle 23: The right to seek asylum

Principle 24: The right to found a family

Principle 25; The right to participate in public life

Principle 26: The right to participate in cultural life

Principle 27: The right to promote human rights

Principle 28: The right to effective remedies and redress

Principle 29: Accountability