A/HRC/35/36 conduct, that Rwanda and other States have resisted recent attempts to introduce such laws into their legal system, that seven States prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation, that courts in Botswana and Kenya, among others, recently declared the refusal to register LGBT associations to be unconstitutional, and that a number of national human rights institutions (including in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa) have expressed themselves against human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.19 30. Other regional human rights instruments offer opportunities for advocacy against violence and discrimination. For instance, it is stated in the Arab Charter on Human Rights, of 2004, in its article 3, that: Each State party to the present Charter undertakes to ensure to all individuals subject to its jurisdiction the right to enjoy the rights and freedoms set forth herein, without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religious belief, opinion, thought, national or social origin, wealth, birth or physical or mental disability. 20 31. The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, of 2012, stipulates that: Every person is entitled to the rights and freedoms set forth herein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, gender, age, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, disability or other status.21 32. A sample of recent constructive practices can be cited. A number of countries on every continent have seen reforms of antiquated and obstructive laws and policies, even though the progress is not always universal. Many South Asian countries and countries in other regions uphold the rights of transgender people, even where they have difficulty in accepting the rights of gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Same-sex couples are now allowed to marry officially in a number of countries, such as Canada, the United States of America, and a range of countries in Europe and Latin America. In 2016, a top court in Belize declared an old law, which had prohibited same-sex relations, to be unconstitutional. Seychelles reformed its law similarly on this front. In 2017, New Zealand agreed to expunge the criminal record of persons criminalized by the colonial law which had forbidden same-sex relations (the law itself having been abrogated a while ago). 22 Germany also moved to annul Nazi-era homosexuality convictions (about 42,000 such convictions had been made under the Third Reich, under an old provision of the Penal Code (art. 175)) and to offer compensation.23 33. Yet, there are evidently several gaps, interlinked with the root causes and environment behind the violence and discrimination, which will be elaborated upon in the sections below. Even in countries that are party to the human rights treaties and even where there are responsive laws, policies and programmes, there are sometimes major incidents of violence and discrimination, such as killings of transgender persons, attacks on sexual orientation and gender identity-related human rights defenders, and sexual orientation and gender identity-related hate speech on social networks, which invites sustained vigilance both at the national and the international levels. 19 20 21 22 23 10 Ending Violence and Other Human Rights Violations Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, p. 21. Reprinted in International Human Rights Reports, vol. 12 (2005), p. 839. The Declaration has to be read together with the Phnom Penh Statement on the Adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, to ensure implementation in conformity with international human rights law. See press release by the Government of New Zealand on 9 February 2017, at https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/historical-homosexual-convictions-eligible-be-wiped. As reported in the Bangkok Post on 24 March 2017, p. 5.