A/HRC/29/23 education, employment and housing. These and related abuses warrant a concerted response from Governments, legislatures, regional organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society, as well as from United Nations bodies – the Human Rights Council included. 6. Concerns regarding the extent and gravity of violence and discrimination against LGBT and intersex persons have been raised repeatedly by United Nations human rights treaty bodies and special procedures. In recent years, the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has published a range of guidance and public information materials – including factsheets, booklets and short videos – and has sought to engage States in a constructive dialogue on ways to better protect the rights of LGBT and intersex persons. In July 2013, the High Commissioner launched UN Free & Equal (www.unfe.org), a global education campaign to combat homophobia and transphobia that has so far reached more than a billion people around the world through events and via traditional and social media. 7. The rights of LGBT persons have also been a focus of work going on across the wider United Nations system. In his message to the Oslo Conference on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the Secretary-General described the fight against homophobia and transphobia as “one of the great, neglected human rights challenges of our time” and pledged to work for an end to criminalization and for action to tackle violence and prejudice. United Nations agencies are increasingly integrating issues of sexual orientation and gender identity into their programmatic work, including in the areas of development, education, labour rights, child rights, gender equality, refugee protection, HIV and public health.4 8. Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity have also been addressed by regional organizations in Africa, the Americas and Europe. In 2014, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights passed a resolution in which it condemned violence and other human rights violations based on real or imputed sexual orientation and gender identity; the Organization of American States approved its seventh resolution on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, having in 2013 adopted the Convention against all forms of Discrimination and Intolerance, which addresses these issues; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights established the mandate of Rapporteur on the rights of LGBT and intersex persons, having established a dedicated unit in 2011; the European Union adopted guidelines on the promotion and protection of human rights of LGBT and intersex persons, and both the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted resolutions on the subject; and the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued several judgements affirming the rights of LGBT persons to equal treatment and protection under the law. III. Applicable international standards and obligations 9. Application of international human rights law is guided by the fundamental principles of universality, equality and non-discrimination. All human beings, irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity, are entitled to enjoy the protection of international human rights law with respect to the rights to life, security of person and privacy, to freedom from torture and ill-treatment, discrimination and arbitrary arrest and 4 4 See “The Role of the United Nations in Combatting Discrimination and Violence against Individuals Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”, OHCHR, 2014.