A/HRC/41/45 III. Data related to sexual orientation and gender identity A. The case for data collection and management 12. State and non-State stakeholders, as well as human rights mechanisms at the global, regional and national levels, have recognized that collection and proper management of relevant data is essential in order to adequately address violence and discrimination. However, as a result of barriers created by criminalization, pathologization, demonization and other institutional drivers for stigmatization, there are no accurate estimates regarding the world population affected by violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Recently, the Independent Expert was shocked to hear from a highlevel officer responsible for the formulation of public policy in a country with a population in the tens of millions that, in the officer’s opinion, the country’s population of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender-diverse persons “could not exceed 300 or so”, and similar misconceptions are common all over the world. Given the evidence of violence and discrimination against these populations and communities, maintaining such a level of ignorance without seeking an appropriate evidence base, and applying such a personal preconception and prejudice to public policy are, in the opinion of the mandate holder, tantamount to criminal negligence. 13. The principle of due diligence, which requires States to protect those at particular risk of violence and discrimination and to take measures to understand and eliminate cultural stigmatization and other social causes of violence and discrimination, is also part of the basis of the State’s responsibility when the State knows, or has reasonable grounds to believe, that abuses are being perpetrated. Disaggregation of data allowing a comparison of population groups therefore forms part of the human rights obligations of States and has become an element of the human rights-based approach to data.4 This includes data relating to demographic, economic, social and cultural characteristics, literacy rates, unemployment rates, voting patterns, the number of reported cases of violence and other indicators. States also need data of this nature for their reports to international human rights bodies pursuant to their obligations. Monitoring includes looking at data gathered by administrative agencies and through statistical surveys, the census, perception and opinion surveys and expert judgements.5 14. The following are examples of the manner in which data can shed light on the root causes of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: • Data from a 2010 survey in one country in the Americas showed that bisexual women who responded to the survey had suffered a significantly higher lifetime prevalence of violence when compared to lesbian and heterosexual women who responded. It was reported that, among the respondents, 61.1 per cent of bisexual women had, at least one time in their lives, been victims of rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 43.8 per cent of lesbians and 35 per cent of heterosexual women;6 • A systematic review of quantitative studies from multiple countries provided evidence of a “high prevalence of physical and sexual violence motivated by perception of sexual orientation and gender identity experienced by sexual and gender minorities, particularly among transgender people”;7 4 5 6 7 See Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), A Human RightsBased Approach to Data (2018). See OHCHR, Human Rights Indicators: A Guide to Measurement and Implementation (2012). Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Persons in the Americas (2015). See also Movement Advancement Project, Invisible Majority: The Disparities Facing Bisexual People and How to Remedy Them (2016). Karel Blondeel and others, “Violence motivated by perception of sexual orientation and gender identity: a systematic review”, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 96, No. 1 (January 2018), p. 34. Available at https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.197251. 5