Misappropriation of Children’s Rights as a Legitimate Aim?: Comparing the Responses of the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee to LGBTQ+ Rights Backlash

ABSTRACT The protection of children’s rights is increasingly misappropriated by populist governments to justify restrictions on expressions related to sexual orientation and gender identity. The presumed conflict between children’s rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trasgender, queer and other identities (LGBTQ+) rights not only diverts attention from discriminatory motives but also distorts the meaning and scope of both groups of rights. While LGBTQ+ rights are marginalized and minimized, children’s rights are reduced to mere protection. This article comparatively examines the responses of the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee to the misappropriation of children’s rights. It shows that the European Court of Human Rights fares better than the UN Human Rights Committee in unmasking the real motives during its legitimate aims review and protecting the scope of sexual orientation and gender identity expressions. However, both organs fail to move beyond the protectionist conception of children’s rights.