Equality of Opportunity for Sexual and Gender Minorities

Contacts

Uwimana Basaninyenzi

Stay Connected

Equality of Opportunity for Sexual and Gender Minorites

The Equality of Opportunity for Sexual and Gender Minorities (EQOSOGI) is the first in a series of studies assessing laws and regulations that affect the lives of sexual and gender minorities in an initial set of 16 countries in six important areas of their life: education, employment, access to public services and social protection, civil and political inclusion, protection from hate crimes, and from being criminalized.

OVERVIEW:

The Equality of Opportunity for Sexual and Gender Minorities (EQOSOGI) report examines the laws and regulations that affect the lives of LGBTI people in 16 countries—Bangladesh, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uruguay. These countries represent different geographic areas, income levels, and inclusiveness of sexual and gender minorities, ensuring a diverse and holistic representation of the issues. The report measures six indicators to identify differences in the legal treatment of sexual and gender minorities, including criminalization, political and civil inclusion, hate crimes, and access to inclusive education, the labor market, public services, and social protection.

Achieving equality of opportunity for LGBTI people is a long-term goal with numerous challenges. The report offers numerous policy recommendations designed to prevent and eliminate discriminatory practices, including the need for explicit and enforced legal protections against discrimination in the workplace, bullying and other forms of harassment in educational settings, and a ban on forced treatment or conversion therapy of sexual and gender minorities.

MULTIMEDIA

VIDEO

Equality of Opportunity for Sexual and Gender Minorities

Access to Inclusive Education
Access to Public Services and Social Protection
Access to the Labor Market
Civil and Political Inclusion
Criminalization AND SOGI
Protection from Hate Crimes

What does the Access to Inclusive Education indicator measure?
The access to inclusive education indicator set examines the existence of national laws, constitutional provisions, or regulations that protect sexual and gender minorities from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics in education. It measures several aspects of discrimination in schools, including laws or regulations in school admissions, laws or regulations preventing and addressing bullying and harassment in the educational system, SOGI-inclusive sex education in schools, and laws or regulations that mandate antidiscrimination training for schoolteachers and other school staff.
For more on this indicator, refer to Chapter One of the EQOSOGI report.
What does the Access to Public Services & Social Protection indicator measure?
The access to public services and social protection indicator set examines whether the existing legal framework provides equal access to public services and social protection to sexual and gender minorities. The indicator aims to determine whether national laws, constitutional provisions, and regulations protect sexual and gender minorities from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics in accessing a range of public services.[1]Also, this indicator set measures the existence of national equality bodies or national human rights institutions responsible for handling claims of SOGI-based discrimination in public services.
For more on this indicator, refer to Chapter Two of the EQOSOGI report.
What does the Access to the Labor Market indicator measure?
The indicator set on access to the labor market aims to identify the existence (or absence) of national laws, constitutional provisions, or regulations that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics in accessing the labor market. It examines the existence of laws or regulations prohibiting discrimination when accessing employment, obtaining equal remuneration and benefits, and seeking redress.
For more on this indicator, refer to Chapter Three of the EQOSOGI report.
What does the Civil and Political inclusion indicator measure?
The civil and political inclusion indicator set examines issues relating to sexual and gender minorities’ civil and political inclusion by analyzing the existence of SOGI-inclusive national human rights institutions,^{^[1]} national action plans, and the freedom of CSOs to operate without fear of persecution. The indicator set includes the measuring of societal inclusiveness by reporting the number of politicians who openly self-identify as a sexual or gender minority in each country’s legislature, the legality of same-sex civil unions, same-sex couples’ ability to marry and adopt children, and legal protections for intersex children. The section also focuses on laws that allow changes in gender markers in official documents without pathologizing requirements and discrimination against sexual and gender minorities in obtaining identity documents
For more on this indicator, refer to Chapter Four of the EQOSOGI report.
What does the Criminalization and SOGI indicator measure?
The criminalization and SOGI indicator set examines a country's degree of SOGI criminalization. It also considers the level of criminalization of same-sex relations between consenting adults and whether there is a discrepancy between the legal age for consensual sex for heterosexuals and same-sex partners. The indicators also measure the existence public morality, public nuisance, or vagrancy laws that specifically target sexual and gender minorities.
For more on this indicator, refer to Chapter Five of the EQOSOGI report.
What does the Protection from hate crimes indicator measure?
The indicator set on protection against hate crimes is critical to determine the existence and effectiveness of laws and mechanisms that criminalize hate crimes and provide protection for sexual and gender minorities. The indicator set evaluates whether crimes based on a person’s SOGI are considered aggravating circumstances under the law, assesses whether laws or regulations require government agencies to monitor and collect data, and examines whether existing regulations mandate the provision of legal assistance, shelter, or housing, forensic or medical examinations, and medical certificates. Finally, it analyzes whether laws or regulations require the training of professionals, such as law enforcement officers and health care providers, to identify hate crimes.
For more on this indicator, refer to Chapter Six of the EQOSOGI report.