The Role of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and Regional Networks in Promoting Human Rights and Health related to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) in Southeast Asia

The UN is increasingly a place where a critical discussion about human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity is taking place. An important institutional component of the UN system of protection of human rights is the creation of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). The regional networks of NHRIs have been important in raising discussions related to SOGI which might be difficult to place on the agenda in purely national contexts. Theoretically, the article seeks to expand on the existing human rights literature’s focus on the role of law and transnational activist networks. Here we first include a discussion of longer term processes of framing involving civil society and various institutional actors related to the development of human rights norms in the area of SOGI and rights related to the health of LGBT persons. Secondly, we focus on the institutional role of NHRIs and regional networks to bridge international human rights norm developments to national contexts. Empirically, this article focuses on the activities of a regional network, the Asia Pacific Forum of NHRIs, and those of NHRIs in selected Southeast Asian states in raising SOGI issues, namely two large democratic states in the region – Indonesia and the Philippines.