Revealing the Rainbow: The human rights situation of Southeast Asia’s LGBTIQ communities and their defenders

Just over a decade ago, the United Nations (UN) introduced a new process for periodically evaluating the human rights performances of each its Member States. That process, known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), during the review Member States received recommendations from their fellow Member States regarding how they could bolster their domestic human rights protections. 

Likewise just over a decade ago, Southeast Asia played host to a significant summit in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. At this summit, international human rights experts agreed on a set of principles setting out the applicable international human rights laws in the context of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual characteristics (SOGIESC). They are the first attempt to comprehensively map the human rights landscape for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) communities worldwide.

This report comprehensively analyses the human rights situation of Southeast Asia’s LGBTIQ Communities and their defenders in Southeast Asia in the decade since the UPR and the Yogyakarta Principles were introduced. It documents both the legal framework and the factual reality in each of the 11 Southeast Asian States.