Uwagi o „Zasadach z Yogyakarty” (The Yogyakarta Principles: Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity)

The author delivers a polemic with the paper published in 2007 by an unofficial international group of experts. The group’s aim is to send a message to all countries indicating extensive consequences of general guarantees provided by international human rights law, especially for the purpose of individual’s protection against sexual and gender discrimination. The author does not deny an individual right to define his/her private life without interference from the state or private parties. However he criticizes the group for its demand – made in a spirit of a modern interpretation of traditional human rights – for affirmation and the so called equality of individual’s decisions regarding sexuality in the areas where the state is obliged to guarantee „institutional space” or „institutional infrastructure” for privacy and the right to procreate. For instance, this relates to legal definition of a family. The author claims that definitions of „sexual orientation” and „gender identity” are not commonly recognized and understood in the same way. This thesis relates to the attributes of a private life which are impossible, or hardly possible, to be measured on the basis of external indications or declarations, the ones which individuals should be entitled not to disclose to the state or anyone else. Repeating the phrase „regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification” in the text of the paper implies public and political importance of these attributes. Whereas the author wonders whether the Yogyakarta Principles amount to a form of discrimination and improper political campaign using the individual's private life details without their consent.