LGBT+ Rights Discussion Group: Integrating Approaches to Segregation under Human Rights Law: Race, Sex, and Gender

Human rights mechanisms, both international and regional, are increasingly seeing challenges to sex or gender segregation (i.e., the exclusion of individuals from spaces or activities, or the separation of individuals within spaces and activities, on the basis of sex or gender) but are responding inconsistently and incoherently to the practice. These mechanisms have called for the elimination of segregation on the basis of sex or gender in education and employment, describing these practices as discriminatory, but they have not expanded their approach beyond these contexts; instead, they have called for the instatement of segregation on the basis of sex or gender in prisons and some bathrooms, and have had little to say about sex or gender segregation in other contexts, such as sports. At the same time, human rights mechanisms are struggling to implement effectively a longstanding, blanket prohibition on race segregation. Until now, these mechanisms have treated race segregation and sex or gender segregation as separate challenges and have developed distinct approaches to their legal analyses of these phenomena. This session will consider whether human rights mechanisms might be able to integrate their approaches to segregation on the basis of race, sex, or gender into a unified framework, assessing both the possibilities and the challenges entailed in developing and implementing such a framework.

Jessica Tueller is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Professor Tueller writes and teaches in the areas of family law; contracts; gender, sexuality, and the law; and international law. Throughout her work, Professor Tueller draws on the work of historians, sociologists, and theorists to describe how progressive ideologies emerge, diverge, and conflict. She considers how these differing ideas and approaches can inform each other or be reconciled with one another in the law, enabling constituencies that might otherwise consider their interests to be unrelated or at odds to work in coalition to promote equality and human rights