Vatican Opposes Gay Rights at UN

The Catholic Church, through its pretend State in the Vatican City, is joining with Islamic States to try to stop the United Nations from protecting the equal rights of gay people throughout the world.

Gay people can be executed in seven Islamic countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and parts of Nigeria and Pakistan.

And gay sex between consenting adults in private is a crime in almost eighty other countries.

France wants the UN to pass a declaration calling for an end to these laws. It wants all States to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention.

The Catholic Church has joined with Islamic States in opposing this move. The Vatican complains that the move would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination”. They also fear that it could lead to gay people being allowed to marry.

The French Declaration

Laws against against consensual gay sex are a violation of human rights. Even if they are not systematically enforced, their very presence on the statute books leads to fear, prejudice, hostility and discrimination against gay people.

In September, Rama Yade, the French minister of human rights and foreign affairs, announced that she would be asking the United Nations to call for the decriminalisation of homosexuality throughout the world.

The French declaration condemns human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity, in particular the use of the death penalty, executions, torture, arbitrary arrest or detention and deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights.

It urges States to do the following:

• To ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention.
• To ensure that human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity are investigated and perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice;
• To ensure adequate protection of human rights defenders, and remove obstacles to them carrying out their work on issues of human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity.

Over fifty countries have signed the declaration, including all 27 European Union countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The Vatican Opposition

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s representative at the UN, opposed the move as it would

“add new categories of those protected from discrimination”.

He also complained that it would

“create new and implacable discriminations… For example, states which do not recognise same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure.”

After protests by gay rights groups outside the Vatican, and a statement by the European Parliament’s LGBT Intergroup, Vatican Radio later claimed that Migliore’s real concern was:

“the introduction of a declaration of political value, which could result in control mechanisms according to which, norms that do not place each sexual orientation on the same level, would be considered contrary to respect for human rights.”

Removing the double negatives, and translating the gobbledegook into plain language, it seems that this may be the part of the French resolution that the Vatican has problems with:

We reaffirm the principle of non-discrimination which requires that human rights apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

In essence, the Vatican is complaining that respect for human rights would include placing each sexual orientation on the same level. And preventing this from happening is more important than preventing gay people from being executed, tortured or jailed.

The Toy Vatican State at the UN

This would not matter so much if the UN treated the Catholic Church like it does all other Churches: by allowing it to make submissions as an ordinary nongovernmental organisation.

Instead, despite having no citizens, territory or economy, the Catholic Church is the only religion in the world that can attend and vote at UN conferences and co-sponsor drafts of UN resolutions and decisions.

Why? Because its pretend State, the Vatican City, issues its own stamps.

Here’s an earlier post where you can read the background to the Vatican’s bizarre involvement with the UN.

Sources

• The French Declaration on LGBT Rights
• ILGA publishes State-sponsored Homophobia report
• MEPs call on Vatican to embrace LGBT rights

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