A presentation by Erin Aylward, Doctoral student at University of Toronto and Junior Visiting Fellow at the Gender Centre, within the Gender Centre's Gender Seminar Series

Report by Vanessa Gauthier Vela, Doctoral student at The Graduate Institute, Geneva

The right to abortion and the rights of LGBTI persons are strongly contested in international debates. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, LGBTI rights have gained remarkable traction in recent years within UN human rights procedures, while abortion has received far less attention or advocacy within UN human rights spaces. Erin Aylward discussed this puzzle in the Gender Centre’s Gender Seminar Series. She explored how different UN bodies understand the issues of LGBT rights and abortion and how this translates into policies.

Issues related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), while increasingly recognized in parts of the UN system, remain disputed. Despite incredible advances since WWII and a general opening trend towards sexual orientation, a backlash against LGBT rights is observable among UN member states in the form of new legislation to criminalise homosexuality or efforts to expand existing ones. Yet the past decade, according to Aylward, has signalled a turning point, as SOGIESC issues began to be framed as human rights issues, providing tools to legitimise advocacy around them. The United Nations Human Rights Council plays a leading role in the development of resolutions for LGBT rights as illustrated in the appointment of an Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on SOGI in 2016, which represents a significant advance in this field.

Turning her attention to the subject of abortion, Aylward pointed out that about one quarter of the world population still does not have access to legal abortion according to a recent global overview. Following the turning point regarding abortion in the UN system in the context of women rights in the mid-1990s, another important shift related to the issue of abortion was brought by the World Health Organization and the medical field who started to present the issue through a technical and policy lens linked to mortality and health issues for women. Yet, in spite of these important advances, a backlash against the issue of abortion, parallel to the one observed against LGBT rights, is apparent at the UN, showing the high level of politicisation around both issues. This backlash is fomented in part by Christian civil society organisations, who advocate for traditional/religious values and by UN member states, who often generate hostile amendments and counter-resolutions in response to efforts to advance reproductive rights (including abortion) or SOGIESC, and by challenges to the HRC treaty body.

The reasons behind the variation between the treatment of abortion and LGBTI issues are, according to Aylward, multiple. As she explained during her presentation, it could be that there are more norm entrepreneurs or “intra-entrepreneur” for LGBT rights. The differences in constructed meanings across states about abortion and LGBT rights, and transnational advocacy networks and counter networks might also be part of the explanation. Aylward’s presentation painted a realistic picture and nuanced understanding of the contested rights nested in sexual and reproductive health and LGBTI issues within the complexity of the UN system, while adopting an optimistic view with regard to the potential for future progressive mobilisations.