The panel will explore legal developments in a number of jurisdictions establishing through court action rights of equality, due process and freedom from discrimination, and in some instances, freedom from criminalisation. The Supreme Court of the United States in its landmark cases (Windsor and Obergefell) has upheld the constitutional rights of LGBTI persons to equality and due process. In other countries, the rights of LGBTI persons have been enhanced incrementally in cases involving adoption; freedom from discrimination in the workplace or in other contexts; immigration (sponsorship of a partner) and rights to asylum or protection; and the right to marry, and of course of importance is freedom from harm where same sex-behaviour is still criminalised. Often, such litigation is pre-planned by groups in civil society taking on a particular cause in furtherance of a long-term goal to improve the legal rights of LGBTI persons. Are such cases a legitimate use of court resources or should the development of rights be confined to lobbying for legislative change? What role do transnational courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights, The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and other bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee, play in developing global recognition not just to privacy (the right to be free from state intrusion into the rights of the individual) but now also rights to equality for LGBTI persons? We will be hearing from litigation specialists involved in these developments.