MALTA-SOGI-UPR-CYCLE3

Incoming recommendations: (Link)

• 110.23 Take further practical steps to ensure full implementation of anti- discrimination legislation and to combat all forms of discrimination, including on grounds of race, sexual orientation, gender identity and others (Czechia) [SUPPORTED]

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Outgoing recommendations:

• Consider amending the Family Code to provide legal recognition of same-sex partnerships and adopt legal provisions that will allow legal gender recognition for transgender individuals (to Albania)
• Take concrete steps to eliminate discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Armenia)
• Ensure prompt, thorough and effective investigations into all cases of violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Armenia)
• Amend the Criminal Code to include homophobia and transphobia as aggravating criminal circumstances (to Armenia)
• Explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected grounds in the draft law on ensuring equality (to Armenia)
• Continue to advance reforms in the remaining states that impose hurdles, including requirements for surgery, on people seeking official identity documents reflecting their gender (to Australia)
• Prohibit any practice that modifies a person’s sex characteristics without irrefutable medical reasons and the full and informed consent of the person affected (to Austria)
• Work towards guaranteeing access to legal gender recognition for intersex, transgender and non-binary people to all six current existing options of gender markers, without any barriers, based on self-identification (to Austria)
• Take further legislative steps to ensure that legal gender recognition happens through a quick, transparent and accessible procedure (to Belgium)
• Intensify existing efforts aimed at the awareness-raising and training of the authorities to tackle discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender (to Bosnia & Herzegovina)
• Consider alternatives to the current Penal Code, which enshrines in legislation cruel and inhuman forms of punishment, such as the application of the death penalty for offences such as rape, sodomy, extramarital sexual relations, among other offences (to Brunei Darussalam)
• Address effectively negative societal attitudes that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (to Chile)
• Guarantee the protection of all vulnerable groups in society, including transgender and intersex children and adolescents (to Chile)
• Disaggregate data based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics with a view to understanding clearly the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Costa Rica)
• Work towards ending protocols that aim to “normalize” intersex bodies through harmful and medical practices including non-consensual surgeries (to Costa Rica)
• Increase efforts to raise awareness of the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Croatia)
• Step up efforts to enact the new legislation on transgender persons (to Cyprus)
• Provide further assistance to victims of discrimination or violence based on gender identity and sexual orientation (to Cyprus)
• Increase awareness-raising programmes and campaigns aimed at deterring public incitement of acts against persons on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (to Cyprus)
• Amend the law to allow persons under the age of 18 to change their legal gender (to Denmark)
• Enact legislation that criminalizes hate speech, including on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (to Estonia)
• Consider taking steps towards the legal recognition of same-sex relationships, including marriage, and the possibility of adopting children (to Greece)
• Take concrete measures to prevent and prohibit discrimination against LGBTQI people, and specifically same-sex couples and their children, in the fields of employment, education, health care and access to social benefits (to Hungary)
• Consider an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, particularly for offences related to consensual same-sex conduct between adults (to Iran)
• Take steps to investigate and end violence against, and killings of, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Iraq)
• Continue to take steps to remove any remaining structural barriers and challenges that preclude LGBTI+ people from achieving their full potential (to Ireland)
• Consider banning unnecessary, non-consensual and normalizing surgery on intersex individuals (to Italy)
• Adopt laws, policies and measures to prevent violence and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (to Kenya)
• Repeal sections 162, 163 and 165 of the Penal Code and decriminalize same-sex conduct between adults (to Kenya)
• Continue taking steps to improve the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, particularly by identifying their needs, and consider involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex representatives in decision-making processes (to Laos)
• Consider appointing a diversity liaison officer from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community in government (to Namibia)
• Improve the census methodology to have quantitative and qualitative data on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex population, as an essential basis for inclusive and human rights-based public policies (to Nicaragua)
• Release without delay lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in detention after the events of April 2018 and guarantee dignified conditions for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons arrested and detained for other reasons (to Nicaragua)
• Consider implementing training for health-care professionals on sexual orientation and gender identity issues, with the aim of eliminating discrimination in health-care access (to Singapore)
• Adopt legal provisions that will allow legal gender recognition to transgender individuals and take meaningful steps to sensitize authorities and the public to their human rights (to Slovenia)
• Work towards ending protocols that aim to “normalize” intersex bodies through harmful and medical practices including non-consensual surgery (to Slovenia)
• Protect children’s rights to bodily integrity, autonomy and self- determination by ensuring, by legislation or otherwise, that non-vital surgical or other medical procedures on intersex infants are not performed before they are able to provide their informed consent (to Sweden)
• Adopt a new gender recognition law to ensure a quick, transparent and accessible mechanism based on self-definition, detaching medical procedures from legal gender recognition, in line with the Yogyakarta Principles (to Sweden)
• Commission a State public report with the mandate to investigate the legal possibility of introducing a third legal gender, towards the increased recognition of self-defined gender identity of each person (to Sweden)
• Condemn hate speech and hate crimes targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Türkiye)
• Consider lifting the ban on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex events in Ankara and protect pride marches and other demonstrations (to Türkiye)
• Consider including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex organizations and involve their civil society representatives within the Government’s decision-making processes (to Türkiye)
• Enhance training of law enforcement officers on basic human rights, also in relation to combating discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer persons; this should be regular, systematic and in the curriculum of law enforcement trainings (to Uganda)
• Strengthen measures to prevent and combat violence, especially the rate of murder of transgender women of colour, as well as the violence experienced by the broader lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (to United States of America)
• Continue efforts aimed at addressing gender-based violence and discrimination against vulnerable groups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Uruguay)
• Take further steps to ensure the protection of all vulnerable groups in society including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (to Viet Nam)

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