LGBTIQ Constituency Statement on the 2030 Agenda - APFSD 2019
LGBTIQ Constituency Statement APFSD 2019
We, the LGBTIQ Constituency of the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism (AP-RCEM), met at the Asia - Pacific People Forum on Sustainable Development, issue the following statement:
We believe, the ‘leave no one behind’ principle is especially relevant for LGBTIQ people, who have been repeatedly left behind by national, regional and international development agenda. There are limited of laws and policies to protect lives of LGBTIQ in many countries, moreover, there are discriminatory laws, traditional or cultural practices, negative social attitudes and projects that don’t acknowledge their specific needs all hold LGBTIQ people back. The impacts of this are felt by LGBTIQ communities in all parts of the world – lack of social protection, lower income, worse health, less education, among other issues. As a result, poverty as a whole will never truly be eradicated until these problems are directly addressed.
Injustice from the current model of global development, exclusion from social and economic structures, rising fundamentalism at the intersection of patriarchy continues to disempower the LGBTIQ community. We continue to face multiple oppressions because of our sexual orientations, gender identity and expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). We are also further victimised and made vulnerable because of climate change and environmental disasters.
We need to focus on the reality faced by LGBTIQ who are marginalised the most because of the intersection of their SOGIESC and other marginalised identities. Sex workers, People living with HIV, people who use the drugs, disability, youth, migrant worker, indigenous and ethnic minority, stateless, refugees, asylum seekers as well as internally displaced people. LGBTIQ people are more impacted, marginalised and displaced by humanitarian crises including disaster, conflict and wars. This makes LGBTIQ people who hold multi-layers of marginalised identity, deeper violations, discrimination and stigmatisation. It gets rooted in all institutions including the education system, media, family, health and work sectors. It reinforces an unjust society reflected at the policy and legal level and does not comply with the human right standards. If our life experiences and realities are not reflected and addressed, it will be impossible to achieve the 2030 agenda.
Discrimination against people on the basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in the learning environments, at the education system, reinforce ‘Drop out’ from schools. LGBTIQ students are constantly bullied and suffer the most from the physical and verbal violence and social discrimination by other students, teachers, faculty and the school staff which results in a high number of students considering suicide. Another factor behind bullying LGBTIQ at schools is because Human Right Education and study of sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in school curricula.
LGBTIQ people face difficulty accessing jobs, decent work and put up with discrimination at the workplace. Having a quality and empowering education is no doubt a vital condition to access to valuable job opportunities. However, LGBTIQ youth, mostly face SOGIESC based discrimination at their schools. Hence, they have less access to better jobs than others and their risk of being in poverty increases. Further, average annual earnings for LGBTIQ people is usually lower than average earnings for the overall population and they face more economic hardships, including working in environments that do not guarantee their safety and protection.
Our Regional Roadmap
The future vision for the LGBTIQ community in Asia and The Pacific demands development justice, including social inclusion, non-discrimination, equal access opportunities, representation and power of decision making on our lives and body autonomy. We want just and equitable transitions from fossil fuel as the climate and ecological crises worsens further.
We want access to comprehensive and quality education and educational institutions that don’t discriminate against LGBTIQ youth. We want comprehensive and affordable education that facilitates and capacitate the young LGBTIQ to access better job opportunities. We have a vision of economic empowerment where we have access to decent work and living wage and workplaces where we don’t face discrimination, physical, sexual or mental harassment and violence. We urge employers to provide inclusive working conditions for LGBTIQ workers and comprehensive benefits and policy for them and their families, which not only meets their needs but also reduce the social stigma at on LGBTIQ people. We urge the state and other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive empowering education to LGBTIQ people in order to reduce the poverty of LGBTIQ peoples, to strengthen the LGBTIQ people’s ownership and to increase the number of LGBTIQ-led businesses.
We want our governments to include us in the process of decision making at all levels, change discriminatory laws that put our lives at risk and hinder our existence. We demand access to justice.
Development cannot happen without including people of diverse SOGIESC and addressing the structural causes of inequality. It is a time for urgency, it is time for a revolutionary, just, equitable and transformative change. Our lives and planet depends on this collective work to achieve the vision of the 2030 Agenda and go beyond it and ensure that we are not leaving anyone behind.
Recommendations
Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
1. Adopt law and policy that specifically address SOGIESC based bullying, discrimination, and violence against LGBTIQ student
2. Ensure appropriate implementation prevention and protection of children and young LGBTIQ from discrimination, stigmatisation and bullying at both formal and informal educational institutions
3. Ensure the educational curricular must embed the Human Rights education that specifically includes SOGIESC
4. Comprehensive Sex Education must be made mandatory at all level of educational curricular
Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Ensuring equal job opportunity for LGBTIQ individuals that is free from discrimination, verbal, physical, sexual and psychological harassment, violence, and threat
Adopt law, constitutional provision, policy, or regulation prohibiting SOGIESC discrimination in public and private sector workplaces at the national level.
Ensure that national equality bodies or national human rights institution are responsible for handling charges of employment discrimination related to SOGIESC.
Governments should provide access to jobs, ensure LGBTIQ individuals are paid a living wage and can access decent work.
There should be no labour flexibilization as it makes LGBTIQ individuals economically vulnerable.
Ensure the decriminalisation of sex workers and decent work conditions including access to sexual and reproductive health services.
Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
Adopt law, constitutional provision, policy, or regulation prohibiting SOGIESC based stigma, discrimination, verbal, non-verbal, physical and psychological harassment, and violence in all aspect both in public and private spheres.
Reform of laws, regulations, policies that stigmatised, discriminated, and criminalised LGBTIQ persons at local and national levels
Ensure that LGBTIQ people can self-identify their gender identity in all of the official documents with the simplified and centralised processes without forcing LGBTIQ people to undergo the medical processes in order to update their sex/gender in the documents.
Ensure universal social protection including education, work, health, pension and other social benefits
State and non-state actors must prevent an Intersex person(s) including babies, adolescents and adult from all type of normalising medical procedures, especially Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) for gender reassignment purpose, as well as forced gender reassignment surgery for LGBTIQ people.
Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Communities the Asia Pacific are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. LGBTIQ community-led initiatives must be enhanced and provided support by government or local authorities to ensure they become resilient and can adapt to impacts of climate change and disaster risk reduction.
Ensure to increase opportunities for engagement with LGBTIQ communities, including mechanisms for social dialogue throughout policy and decision-making processes at all levels and enhanced participation of all relevant stakeholders so as to adopt policies that reflect their views and concerns.
Fossil-fuel- move to a feminist fossil fuel free future systems block the urgent and just transition to renewable, ecologically economies, exacerbate global climate and ecological crisis, and stop us from globally remaining below the 1.5 degrees temperature rise above pre-industrial levels that is required for existence and safety of all Pacific people, including LGBTIQ people and our communities.
Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Ensure decriminalisation of LGBTIQ individuals and that they are able to access equal rights and protection by law
LGBTIQ individuals have the right to political participation without the fear of discrimination and violence
Ensure that the inclusion of hate based on real or perceived SOGIESC as an aggravating factor in laws, regulations, judicial decisions and policies on hate crimes and incitement to violence legislation that includes real or perceived SOGIESC as the motive of hate crimes exists
Ensure the secure free and unrestricted travel for LGBTIQ Human rights defenders and representatives of independent civil society
We urge the state to have mandatory training programs for a judicial, healthcare provider, law enforcement, and correctional officials incorporate training on human rights and protection from violence concerning LGBTI and SOGIESC
Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
1. Ensure that gender-responsive, participatory budgeting systems must include LGBTIQ representation in public, private and donor agencies.
2. Ensuring these budgets are accessible to LGBTIQ people and communities
3. Ensure corporations are taxed progressively so these taxes can be used by the government towards publics services accessed by LGBTIQ communities
LGBTIQ Constituency members:
Sulique Waqa - Haus of Khameleon / Asia Pacific Transgender Network (LGBTIQ Constituency Focal Point)
Arvi (Rudolf Bastian Tampubolon) - GCAP Youth SENCAP - Free and Equal Rights
Matcha Phornin, Sangsan Anakot Yaowachon Development Project
Phong Tran - Organisation: DeGenderation Confederation
Marli Gutierrez, Asia Pacific Transgender Network
Amasai Jeke - Rainbow Pride Foundation Fiji.
Wannapong Yodmuang, Asia Pacific Transgender Network
Neha Gupta - Feminist Activist
Drafting Team of the LGBTIQ Constituency
LGBTIQ Constituency Meeting
About the Statement: The LGBTIQ Constituency Statement of Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2019 Sixth Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality, 27-29 March 2019, United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
The statement was drafted by LGBTIQ Constituency members during the Asia Pacific Peoples’ Forum on Sustainable Development 2019 which it will use to advocate and it reflected our represented and ensuring our voices collectively that exists at the regional levels in the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, at the the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
According The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in 2015, lays down a framework of sustainable development that is articulated through the 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets, which governments have committed to meet over the next 15 years. The High Level Political Forum (HLPF), the body which oversees the implementation and monitoring of the Framework, meets every year to take stock of progress and picks a set of focus goals every year.
Each year, the Asia Pacific Peoples’ Forum on Sustainable Development - the regional forum that meant to foster and promote exchange of views and ideas on the 2030 Agenda in the region is also happen before the the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and this year its happen on 27-29 March 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand
The successful story of Asia Pacific Peoples’ Forum on Sustainable Development and the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development reflected by the people is our engagement and our collective peoples’s movement for development justice which reflected in our constituency statement that commitment to ensure that 'no one is left behind'.
Moreover at our 17 contingencies include LGBTIQ were drafted it statement too.
APRCEM is a civil society platform aimed to enable stronger cross constituency coordination and ensure that voices of all subregions of Asia Pacific are heard in intergovernmental processes at the regional and global level. The platform is initiated, owned and driven by the CSOs, and seeks to engage with UN agencies and Member States across the region on the issue of sustainable development. As an open, inclusive, and flexible mechanism, RCEM is designed to reach the broadest number of CSOs in the region, harness the voice of grassroots and peoples’ movements to advance development justice that address the inequalities of wealth, power, resources between countries, between rich and poor and between men and women.”
At the 2019 People’s Forum on Sustainable Development - Asia Pacific CSO Engagement Mechanism (APRCEM)