A/HRC/29/23 V. Discrimination63 41. The Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have repeatedly urged States to tackle both direct and indirect discrimination against all persons, including LGBT and intersex persons.64 States have an obligation to ensure that laws, policies and programmes executed by State authorities do not discriminate against individuals. They also have an obligation to address discriminatory practices, including by private actors, and to take action to prevent, diminish and eliminate the conditions and attitudes that contribute to substantive or de facto discrimination. 42. Discrimination against LGBT individuals is often exacerbated by other identity factors, such as sex, ethnicity, age and religion, and socioeconomic factors, such as poverty and armed conflict.65 The impact of such multiple forms of discrimination may be felt at an individual level and a societal one, as LGBT persons, deprived of access to such basic rights as employment, health, education and housing find themselves in poverty, cut off from economic opportunity. 66 Studies undertaken in several countries suggest that rates of poverty, homelessness and food insecurity are higher among LGBT individuals than in the wider community.67 The World Bank has documented the negative impact of homophobia on economic growth and development.68 A. Discriminatory laws 1. Laws criminalizing homosexuality and other laws used to penalize individuals because of sexual orientation or gender identity 43. States that criminalize consensual homosexual acts are in breach of international human rights law since these laws, by their mere existence, violate the rights to privacy and non-discrimination. Arrests and the detention of individuals on charges relating to sexual orientation and gender identity – including offences not directly related to sexual conduct, such as those pertaining to physical appearance or so-called “public scandal” – are discriminatory and arbitrary.69 Since its landmark decision in Toonen v. Australia (communication No. 488/1992) in 1994, the Human Rights Committee and other mechanisms have repeatedly urged States to reform laws criminalizing consensual samesex conduct, and welcomed their repeal. 44. At least 76 States retain laws that are used to criminalize and harass people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, including laws criminalizing 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 12 See also A/HRC/19/41, paras. 40-47. See E/C.12/GC/20, paras. 7-11, CCPR/C/PER/CO/5, para. 8. See CRC/C/GC/15, para. 8, A/HRC/20/16, paras. 17, 23-27, A/HRC/26/50, para. 15, CEDAW/C/GC/28, para. 18. See A/HRC/27/55, paras. 64-66, E/C.12/PER/CO/2-4, para. 5. See Lucas Paoli Itaborahy, LGBT people living in poverty in Rio de Janeiro (London, Micro Rainbow, 2014); and Gary J. Gates, “Food Insecurity and SNAP (Food Stamps) Participation in LGBT Communities”, Williams Institute, February 2014. M.V. Lee Badgett, “The economic cost of stigma and the exclusion of LGBT People: a case study of India”, World Bank Group, 2014. See CCPR/C/BLZ/CO/1, para. 13, CCPR/C/PHL/CO/4, para. 10, CCPR/C/SLV/CO/6, para. 3(c).