3. Hello friends,
Yogyakarta Principles comic was created especially for you guys (lesbian,
gay, bisexsual and transgenders)—young LGBTIQ in Indonesia. What is
Yogyakarta Principles (YP)? These are the principles on the enforcement
of human rights related to the choice of sexual orientation and gender
identity.
What is human rights anyway? Human rights are the rights given to
human being since their birth that do not distinguish them by status,
group, race, religion, position or even their sexual orientation and gender
identity. So as part of LGBTIQ group we do have our human rights like
any other human being. But in reality there are a lot of human rights
violation against this group, such as rape, torture, different treatment
in workplace, forced arrest and detainment and any forms of violence
against the LGBT groups. It ain’t fair, is it???!!!
So YP was developed to respond any forms of violence reported from
all over the world. Of course these principles were created as an effort to
enforce human rights of LGBTIQ all over the world. The YP were composed
in a meeting attended by some experts in law and human rights who
came from all over the world on November 6-9, 2006 at Gajah Mada
University, Yogyakarta.
Institut Pelangi Perempuan that has been working on the empowerment
of young lesbian, bisexual, women and transgender in Jakarta, Bogor,
Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi area has the initiative to introduce Yogyakarta
Principles in a form of comic, which will be easier to understand in terms
of content because as we know YP has a lot of legal terms that are difficult
to be understood by our fellow young LGBTIQs. The concept itself was
created as attractive as possible so that you’ll be interested in reading it.
This comic was not coming out of nowhere and printed automatically
but it has gone through a series of process of interview with some young
LGBTIQ in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi area on their
daily experiences. We then collected those interviews into a fiction in this
comic. The concept of this comic was a collaborative result with academics
from Gender and Sexuality Studies of Universitas Indonesia and human
rights activists that contributed a lot in the creation of this YP comic.
So that was the background of this comic, we hope this comic will give
certain color in our life. The government of Indonesia has not yet adopted
YP but by understanding the content of YP, it is expected that we will be
able to build the awareness of young LGBTIQ to make the application of
Yogyakarta Principles in our life.
Salam Pelangi!
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4. Special Thanks
After all the troubles and hurdles that we have gone through we are
able to finish the Yogyakarta Principles comic. This long and cautious
process was over and marked by the publication of this comic.
Institut Pelangi Perempuan would like to address our gratitude to
our friends and community of young lesbian, bisexual, women and
transgender at the Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi area
who have shared their experiences with us and turned it into story in
this comic. We would like also to thank HIVOS who has supported us in
making our dream comes true that is to make the Yogyakarta Principles
comic, also The Astraea Foundation who also support us in publishing
Yogyakarta Principles comic in English version. Kamilia Manaf as the
Executive Directore of Institute Pelangi Perempuan who has given her
tiredless support and encouraged us that Institute Pelangi Perempuan
should be able to spread the information on Yogyakarta Principle by
publishing this comic and she also participated in composing this comic.
We would like to thank Ino who has spent her times weaving story
by story of our fellow LGBTIQ in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang
and Bekasi area either through direct interview or online. As well as
to Yasmin Purba, a human rights activist from IKOHI and Mas Irwan
MH, a researcher at the Gender and Sexuality Studies of Universitas
Indonesia who were willing to be our partners in discussing about
this comic. We could never forget the comic artist Mas Agung who
has turned the stories into comic that is not only beautiful but also
readable. We would like also to acknowledge the hard work of our IPP
Staff who contributed a lot in this process: Panca, mely and Nana who
would be inseparable parts of IPP. We would like also to thank Yatna
as the volunteer who has helped us during the process of this comic’s
publication.
Salam Pelangi!
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5. Prologue
Human Rights (HR) has been one of the most important and controversial
issue amongst the international community during the past decade. This
is more so when rapid globalization often caused Human Rights violations
may it be within a state or between states. On the other hand, it is
globalization that enables more people to be aware about how important
HR is. There are also many different understanding about what are
HR in different parts of the world, causing different practices in their
enforcement. Many states, such as Indonesia, still consider sex orientation
as not a HR issue. In many parts of the world, including in Indonesia,
there are often cases when someone/a group of people are subjected to
violence, excommunicated from their family, banned from organizing or
establishing association, dismissed from employment, arrested, or excluded
from health services- just to mention a few – due to their unconventional
sexual orientation and/or gender identity- such as transgender, gay,
lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, or sex worker.
Due to this context a number of HR activists and experts from 25
countries decided to compose a set of principles for the implementation
of HR law in relation with sexual orientation and gender identity. These
principles were launched in Jogjakarta on March 27, 2007- and they are
referred to as The Yogyakarta Principles. The objective of these principles
is to promote the UN members’ governments- including Indonesia’s- to
respect, protect and fulfill the HR of their citizens- especially with relation
to sexual orientation and gender identity. HR are the state’s obligation
to realize. Each citizen has the right to demand the state to perform its
obligation to enforce HR.
The comic book in the reader’s hands is a form effort initiated by Institut
Pelangi Perempuan to disseminate information on The Yogyakarta Principles
amongst young LGBTIQ community in Indonesia. This book is an effort to
“translate” the principles into a more youth friendly language. The story in
this comic book is inspired by the real life story of a number of young
lesbians in Indonesia. Comic book was chosen as the media to explain The
Yogyakarta Principles with the hope that it would be easier to comprehend
as compared to brochures or pocket books..
It should be noted that the Yogyakarta Principles is not a binding
legal document for UN member states. However, it expounds upon the
obligations of all states to implement effectively their obligation pertaining
HR. Therefore there needs to be advocacy efforts by various parties- such as
what Institut Pelangi Perempuan is engaged in- to ensure the government
of Indonesia exercise its obligations on HR enforcement.
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88. THE YOGYAKARTA PRINCIPLES
on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
PRINCIPLE 1. The Right to the Universal Enjoyment of Human
Rights
PRINCIPLE 2. The Rights to Equality and Non-discrimination
PRINCIPLE 3. The Right to recognition before the law
PRINCIPLE 4. The Right to Life
PRINCIPLE 5. The Right to Security of the Person
PRINCIPLE 6. The Right to Privacy
PRINCIPLE 7. The Right to Freedom from Arbitrary deprivation of
liberty
PRINCIPLE 8. The Right to a Fair Trial
PRINCIPLE 9. The Right to Treatment with Humanity while in
Detention
PRINCIPLE 10. The Right to Freedom from Torture and Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
PRINCIPLE 11. The Right to Protection from all forms of exploitation,
sale and trafficking of human beings
PRINCIPLE 12. The right to Work
PRINCIPLE 13. The right to social security and to other social
protection measures
PRINCIPLE 14. The right to an adequate standard of living
PRINCIPLE 15. The Right to Adequate Housing
PRINCIPLE 16. The Right to Education
PRINCIPLE 17. The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of
Health
PRINCIPLE 18. Protection from Medical Abuses
PRINCIPLE 19. The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
PRINCIPLE 20. The Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and
Association
PRINCIPLE 21. The Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and
Religion
PRINCIPLE 22. The Right to Freedom of Movement
PRINCIPLE 23. The Right to seek Asylum
PRINCIPLE 24. The Right to Found a Family
PRINCIPLE 25. The Right to participate in public life
PRINCIPLE 26. The Right to Participate in Cultural Life
PRINCIPLE 27. The Right to Promote Human Rights
PRINCIPLE 28. The Right to Effective Remedies and Redress
PRINCIPLE 29. Accountability
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89. Institut Pelangi Perempuan is a non-governmental
organization as the center of activities and information
for young Lesbian, Bisexual Women and Transgender in
Indonesia. IPP uses the strategy called “Edufuntainment”
(Education, Fun and Entertainment) as the tool for
promoting and struggling for LGBTIQ rights. Creating
youth friendly, safe and informal space such as dance,
boxing and badminton club for young LBT women are
some of the activities which were provided by IPP for
organizing and mobilizing the community. IPP was founded
on 2006 by the collaboration of feminists, artists, human
rights activists as well as young LBT women.
Website : www.pelangiperempuan.or.id
Email : pelangiperempuan@gmail.com
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