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Using International Human Rights Law To Advance Queer Rights: A Case Study For The American Declaration Of The Rights And Duties Of Man, 55 Ohio St. L.J. 649 (1994), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

In addition to violating various provisions of federal and state constitutions, anti-gay ballot initiatives may violate international human rights norms. I see three reasons to invoke international human rights to challenge these initiatives. First, international human rights norms place the struggle for gay and lesbian rights in its proper context as a struggle for human rights. Second, some of the international human rights instruments provide both a source of legal obligation and an additional forum to challenge anti-gay ballot initiatives. Third and finally, if lesbian and gay activists in the United States establish that documents such as the American Declaration …