A/HRC/44/53 or psychiatric patients or requiring that they be “cured” by so-called “treatment”, were a clear violation of their right to sexual and reproductive health. 114 61. The Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the Independent Expert expressed grave concerns that stigma and prejudice, criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity, negation and the remnants of pathologization have a negative impact on national health policies and practices.115 Similarly, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expressed concerns about discrimination against persons perceived to have a disability in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, who were forced to undergo medical treatment.116 In 2018, in its concluding observations on the initial report of Poland, the Committee expressed concerns about the integrity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender-diverse persons who were reportedly subjected to practices of “conversion therapy”.117 As noted above, the psychological pain and suffering inflicted by practices of “conversion therapy” are deep and long-lasting and often exacerbate the risk of suicide.118 3. Prohibition of torture and ill-treatment 62. United Nations entities and human rights mechanisms have expressed concern about practices of “conversion therapy”,119 and the United Nations anti-torture machinery has concluded that they can amount to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.120 The Committee against Torture and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have issued explicit reproaches against the treatments that are forced, involuntary or otherwise coercive or abusive,121 and the Committee on the Rights of the Child has connected those practices with violations of the rights of all adolescents to freedom of expression and respect for their physical and psychological integrity, gender identity and emerging autonomy.122 In 2020, the Independent Forensic Expert Group concluded that “conversion therapy constitutes cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment when it is conducted forcibly or without an individual’s consent and may amount to torture depending on the circumstances, namely the severity of physical and mental pain and suffering inflicted”.123 63. The Independent Expert observes that all practices of “conversion therapy” take as a point of departure the belief that sexually diverse or gender-diverse persons are somehow inferior – morally, spiritually or physically – than their heterosexual and cisgender siblings and must modify their orientation or identity to remedy that inferiority. The opposite view, supported by international human rights law, is that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse persons are equal to others, that their sexual orientation and gender identity are a natural part of their development, without any detrimental qualification to their moral stature, their mental or physical health or their ability to seek and achieve fulfilment through spirituality. That recognition is fundamental to giving content to the principle of dignity, according to which there is an innate and equal value of all human beings. 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 22 (2016) on the right to sexual and reproductive health, para. 23. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25128&LangID=E#_ftn13. CRPD/C/IRN/CO/1, para. 12 (b). CRPD/C/POL/CO/1, para. 30. A/74/148, para. 48; and A/HRC/38/43, para. 47. CRC/C/RUS/CO/4-5, para. 55; CCPR/C/ECU/CO/6, para. 12; CEDAW/C/ECU/CO/8-9; and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 22. CAT/C/CHN/CO/5, para. 55; CAT/C/ECU/CO/7, para 49; CAT/C/57/4, para. 69; CCPR/C/UKR/CO/7, para. 10; CCPR/C/NAM/CO/2, para. 9; A/74/148, para. 50; A/56/156, para. 24; A/HRC/43/49, para. 37; and A/HRC/22/53, paras. 76 and 88. See also A/HRC/19/41 and A/HRC/29/23. A/74/148, para. 50; A/56/156, para. 24; A/HRC/43/49; and CAT/C/CHN/CO/5, para. 56. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 20 (2016) on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence. See www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1752928X20300366. 15