Country: Spain

Committee: UNHRC
Delegate: Anette Bernal-Cuevas
School: HTHCV
Topic: LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+ is of major importance in all countries because the percentage of people who
identify with the LGBT community has largely increased over the years. The LGBTQ+
community has been overlooked and discriminated for centuries due to religious and moral
beliefs of the people outside of this community. All across the world discrimination based on
sexual orientation and gender identity is affecting the LGBTQ+ community, prohibiting them
from finding employment, housing, and access to basic services. Transgender and gender diverse
individuals from the LGBTQ+ group have the highest rates of hate violence including extortion,
physical and sexual assaults, and murder. Across the world, there's an inconsistency of laws that
apply to people who are heterosexual that does not apply to people who identify as LGBTQ+.
There are laws that protect people from discrimination that do not apply to the LGBTQ+
community. If the UN does not address this issue the murder rate towards the LGBTQ+
community will continue to rise globally due to hate crimes. In the past decade, nearly 3,000
transgender people were murdered worldwide. The most common causes of death were beating,
shooting, and stabbing. In the past 12 months, 369 transgender people were murdered. Also, by
not addressing this issue but addressing other types of discrimination including race, religion,
sex, age, disability, etc. and make actions for them, could make the UN seem biased and
unreliable for all people.

Spain feels that the LGBTQ+ community should have the same rights and social norm
status as the heterosexual community. In the past, Spain has had contradicting opinions on the
act of homosexuality since the Roman Empire. Spain has gone back and forth with actions in
favor or opposed of LGBTQ+ by legalizing and criminalizing the act of homosexuality several
times for many years. For example, homosexuality was common and legal during the Roman
Empire but was then criminalized by Christian emperors; laws against sodomy were established
during the legislative period but then repealed in 1822. As of right now, openly identifying with
the LGBTQ+ community is legal and so is same-sex marriage. It has been legal to identify as
LGBTQ+ since 1979 and same-sex marriage plus adoption has been legal since 2005. We allow
LGBTQ+ people to serve openly in the military. People who identify as transgender are allowed
to change legal gender without prior sex reassignment surgery and sterilization. Gay and bisexual
men are allowed to donate blood. All types of discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity are illegal. Now, Spain is addressing the issue by speaking on the topic and
sharing a different point of view that positively affects LGBTQ+. Spain is affected by LGBTQ+
because 6.9% of Spaniards identify as LGBTQ+. That is ​3,223,680 people who deserve the same
rights as everyone else.

The international community has made efforts to address discrimination against

LGBTQ+. A resolution was submitted by South Africa asking for a study on discrimination
towards sexual orientation and gender identity. It passed 23 to 19 in the UNHRC on June 17,
2011. Along with 22 other countries, Spain voted in favor of this resolution. This was the first
time ever that any UN body approved a resolution declaring the rights of LGBTQ+ people. The
effect of these actions has positively affected the world because this resolution called on the
OHCHR Navi Pillay to write the first UN report documenting discriminatory laws and practices
and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Spain believes that the world needs to address LGBTQ+ by providing the same rights and
social norms for individuals who identify with LGBTQ+. The act of homosexuality needs to be
decriminalized in all countries no matter religious beliefs or moral norms. Discrimination of any
kind based on sexual orientation and gender identity should be prohibited across all countries.
Human Rights, applied by the UN, are the “rights that all human beings inherent, regardless of
race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the
right to life, freedom from slavery, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and
education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights without discrimination”;
therefore, countries who signed off to the Human Rights and continue to discriminate against
LGBTQ+ would be contradicting what they signed off for and what Human Rights mean. This is
important because all LGBTQ+ people should be treated equally and justly like any other
individual. Ultimately, everyone is human no matter belief or identity and therefore, should be
treated as one.
 Works Cited

Ang, Katerina. “Anti-LGBTQ Homicides Almost Doubled in 2017.” ​MarketWatch​, 23 Jan.

2018,

www.marketwatch.com/story/anti-lgbtq-homicides-almost-doubled-in-2017-2018-01-23-

10

88199.

“Council Establishes Mandate on Côte D'Ivoire, Adopts Protocol to Child Rights Treaty,

Requests

Study on Discrimination and Sexual Orientation - Côte D'Ivoire.” ​ReliefWeb​,

reliefweb.int/report/c%C3%B4te-divoire/council-establishes-mandate-c%C3%B4te-divoi

re-

adopts-protocol-child-rights-treaty.

“Trans Murder Monitoring Archives.” ​TvT​, 12 Nov. 2018,

transrespect.org/en/research/trans-murder-monitoring/.

United Nations. “‘All We Want Is Equality’: Religious Exemptions and Discrimination against

LGBT People in the United States.” ​Refworld​, 19 Feb. 2018,

www.refworld.org/docid/5a8aa1884.html.

“Welcome to the Human Rights Council.” ​OHCHR​,

www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/pages/aboutcouncil.aspx.