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No Intersectionality Without Global Justice: A Reflection on the CRPD 32nd Session

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alt text: two books on disbility rights and justice placed at the intersection of overlapping shadows There are real signs of change in the way the rights of LGBTIQ+ persons with disabilities are being recognized at the international level. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been steadily moving forward, bringing more visibility to issues at the intersection of disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). After years of silence, there is growing space to name these realities openly—and to demand concrete action. Yet, alongside these steps forward, challenges remain, especially when it comes to ensuring that all regions and all communities are equally seen, heard, and protected. My focus in this post is specifically on how SOGIESC issues were addressed during the  Committee’s 32nd session , held in March 2025 in Geneva, and what lessons we can draw for the broader struggle for interse...
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On Law as Love, Intersectionality and One ECtHR Case

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  In 2014, a school for children with disabilities in Saint Petersburg, Russia,  fired  a lesbian music teacher for what they deemed an ‘immoral offense.’ The dismissal was preceded by a dossier on the teacher compiled and shared with local authorities by an anti-LGBT activist. The dossier included photos from the teacher’s restricted social media account showing her hugging or kissing other women, including her partner.    AK was among many teachers harassed by anti-LGBT activists and forced to leave their jobs in Russia after the adoption of the national law prohibiting ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientation among minors.’ Human Rights Watch, for example,  documented  seven other cases in which educators who were LGBT themselves or supported LGBT rights were threatened or pressured to resign. Each case involved smear campaigns citing the ‘propaganda’ law, but only AK’s case reached an international human rights body.   European Court’...
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Prides, prejudices and the Human Rights Committee: What do we do with the master’s tool?

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I am an international lawyer. International lawyers bring cases to international bodies that adopt international decisions. A heavy book living on a shelf in my home office states that such decisions ‘represent a considered assessment of alleged violations against a particular factual background … with a determination of admissibility, violation or otherwise’. 1   Dry legal technical terminology. But international lawyers – at least, some of us – also know the other side of international cases. Their human faces, their human struggles, their healing (or not) potential. Exactly ten years ago, it was a sunny Saturday in Saint Petersburg, and I woke up thinking about some easy stuff. And then I’ve got a message from a friend – something serious was happening just 700 meters from my apartment, at the Field of Mars, where fellow activists gathered for an LGBT pride demonstration. There was an aggressive crowd attacking the activists, there was violence against them, and the police start...
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