via ARC International: The highlight of the 29th Session of the Human Rights Council from the point of view of the rights of LGBTI persons was the release of the report of the High Commissioner on human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The increasing mainstreaming of the rights of LGBTI persons was reflected in the fact that LGBTI issues found mention in the reports of many Special Rapporteurs including the Special Rapporteurs on the right to health, and the protection of human rights during counter terrorism, as well as in state and civil society responses to the same.

Even as the rights of LGBTI persons are possibly more mainstreamed than ever before, the opposition to granting these rights remains as strident as ever. Apart from openly homophobic statements by states opposed, the opposition is also crafting other strategies. Part of the new strategy is to couch their opposition in more subtle terms. An example in this Council is how the resolution to protect the family became a theatre for shadow boxing wherein the code for supporting the resolution was seen as an opposition to the so-called ‘LGBTI agenda’.