Expert offers tips for decriminalisation

A human rights expert has given suggestions on how to strategically decriminalise policies in the kingdom relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community.

The Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) Foundation and the Embassy of Canada earlier this week cohosted a seminar titled “Advancing LGBTQI Rights: Decriminalisation in Asia, and Trans and Intersex Recognition in Thailand”. The event was part of the APCOM Community Summit 2022 which started on Wednesday and ended yesterday.

The seminar discussed the decriminalisation of laws related to the LGBTQI community across Asia and methods around how to do so.

The seminar also talked about the process of legalising gender recognition status among Thai intersex and transgender people.

During the opening remarks, the UN specialist rapporteur and former UN independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity Vitit Muntarbhorn stated that despite the progress in advancing LGBQI rights across the globe, there are still around 70 countries that criminalise consensual same-sex relationships, in which many same-sex couples have faced corporal and even capital punishment.

To decriminalise LGBTQI-related policies, Mr Vitit suggested mechanisms that helped the LGBTQI and wider community to strategically resolve prejudiced and discriminatory laws.

He suggested that groups need to advocate well to suspend these laws firstly by stopping their use against others altogether.

“Even when you are not reforming the law, don’t apply the bad law. Just suspend it,” he said.

Another useful mechanism is to “repeal and reform”, a process that means the laws have to be vetted in parliament. He suggested having the leadership involved in repealing and reforming these laws is very important.

“[Leadership] is not about any one political party, but, for example, guidance from gentlemen or gentle-ladies, or someone who is not so gentle at the top that would hopefully approve of it,” he added.

He also talked about expunging the previous criminal records of victims who were subject to LGBTQI criminalisation, something New Zealand has been doing. He explained that there were a large number of criminal records of gay and other gender minorities that had remained even after criminalisation laws against the community had been repealed. Recently, there has been advocacy for the clearing of such records.

“We need to erase them and backdate them in order to erase the stigmatisation and taboos,” he added.