IACHR Welcomes Mexico's Ban on Practices Aimed At Changing Sexual Orientation and Gender Expressions

June 12, 2024

Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) welcomes legislative reforms adopted by the State of Mexico to ban and punish attempts to change or suppress non-normative sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expressions. The IACHR urges States in the Americas to eradicate these practices and to protect LGBTI persons from the violence they entail.

The Mexican Senate passed reforms that change the Federal Penal Code and the General Law on Health, punishing anyone who conducts, promotes, instructs, forces, or funds any kind of treatment, therapy, service, or practice to block, restrict, prevent, undermine, annul, or suppress an individual's sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression. These reforms were adopted in April and went into force on June 8, through a decree that was published in the Federation's official gazette (Diario Oficial de la Federación). They stress that healthcare professionals involved in these practices may be suspended from the exercise of their professional activities.  

The IACHR welcomes the actions of the Mexican State, which entail an effort to comprehensively protect the human rights of LGBTI persons. Concerning these invasive practices, the Commission has said in the past that attempts to change or suppress sexual orientation and gender identity or expressions are inherently discriminatory acts of violence. The IACHR further notes that these practices have a disproportionate impact on women, children, and adolescents, who are usually more at risk of being subjected to them.

Practices to change sexual orientation and gender identity or expressions (usually known as conversion practices) are actions aimed at eliminating or changing gender and sexual diversity and may involve punishment, confinement, verbal abuse, humiliation, psychotherapy interventions, forced medication, or emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, among other forms of violence. Depending on the seriousness of the harm they cause, these practices may even amount to torture.

Both the IACHR and the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other UN experts have warned that these types of actions are harmful, unethical, and scientifically baseless. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has said that these practices are a serious threat for the health and the human rights of the affected individuals.

States must ensure regulation and effective oversight of all healthcare professionals who offer services to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Reports of such practices must be seriously investigated, especially when they involve allegations of deprivation of liberty or abuse and even torture. States must also foster cultural change to counter the underlying causes of discrimination and rejection of sexual and gender diversity, as well as enabling redress and rehabilitation for victims.

The Commission calls on States to take concrete action to eradicate these practices, going beyond punishment to take measures like information, education, and prevention campaigns. The IACHR is available to work with States and civil society to promote and protect the human rights of LGBTI persons.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 135/24

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