Queering CEDAW? Sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) in international human rights law

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2020 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee) found for the first time that a state had breached its obligations to prevent discrimination against women in the case of a lesbian couple subjected to a homophobic hate crime. No international human rights treaty specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or sex characteristics (SOGIESC). The UN treaty bodies are developing a jurisprudence on the basis of such claims, with claimants sometimes forced to argue that they were discriminated against on the basis of ‘other status’. This article situates the CEDAW Committee's Views in ON and DP v Russian Federation in the context of attempts to queer international law, and international human rights law in particular. It analyses the costs and benefits of three strategies aimed at queering international human rights law: equality/universalism, special rights/a SOGIESC treaty; and queering CEDAW. The article aims to evaluate the significance of the first decision finding for the complainants on the basis of intersectional sexuality discrimination under CEDAW and to assess whether this amounts to queering CEDAW.