Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights: A European Perspective

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the way in which human rights discourses on LGBTQI persons’ rights have been developed in the European continent and how this may or may not differ from the American model of human rights advocacy. The chapter highlights the peculiarity of the “European Model” of protection of LGBTQI persons as being influenced by the presence of both the EU and the CoE. Further, the chapter illustrates how developments in the field of human rights protection for these “sexual minorities” cannot be disjointed from supranational dynamics originating in these two organisations. Lastly, the chapter paves the way to introduce the concept of “European Sexual Nationalism” as a rhetorical and ideological device used in both national and foreign policy.