The United Nations was split this week between States supporting gay rights and States supporting religious homophobia. But gay rights campaigners are pleased with the outcome, as it is the first time that the UN Assembly has considered such a declaration.
66 nations signed a French declaration calling for the global decriminalisation of homosexuality.
But almost sixty nations signed a rival Islamic-backed declaration that claimed that the phrase “sexual orientation” could lead to legitimising paedophilia.
The Catholic Church, which attends the UN through its pretend State in the Vatican City, called for an end to violence and criminal sanctions against gay people. But it refused to support the French declaration, because it would protect sexual orientation and gender identity as human rights.
The French Declaration
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.
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.
You can read more about the French declaration in this previous post on the topic.
The Islamic Opposition
The rival Syrian declaration condemned
“all forms of stereotyping, exclusion, stigmatization, prejudice, intolerance and discrimination and violence directed against peoples, communities and individuals on any ground whatsoever, wherever they occur.”
However, despite this seemingly wide-ranging definition, it excluded what it called
“the so-called notions of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
It complained that “the ominous use of the notion of sexual orientation spans a wide range of personal choices”, and could
“usher the social normalization, and possibly the legitimisation, of many deplorable acts including pedophilia.”
And it complained that the notion of gender identity
“attributes sexual interests or behaviours to genetic factors, a matter scientifically rebuffed repeatedly.”
Finally, it complained that the French declaration:
“delves into matters which fall essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of states counter to the commitment in the UN to respect the sovereignty of States and the principle of non-intervention.”
It said that, by misinterpreting the Universal Declaration and international treaties to include such notions that were never articulated nor agreed by the general membership, the French declaration could
“seriously jeopardize the entire international human rights framework.”
The Catholic Opposition
The Catholic Church did not support either declaration. It supported the French call for an end to violence and unjust discrimination against gay people, but complained that the declaration “went well beyond” this by describing sexual orientation and gender identity as human rights.
The Vatican statement at the UN said that sexual orientation and gender identity “find no recognition or clear and agreed definition” under international law, and added:
“If they had to be taken into consideration in the proclaiming and implementing of fundamental rights, these would create serious uncertainty in the law as well as undermine the ability of States to enter into and enforce new and existing human rights conventions and standards.”
The official Vatican newspaper later elaborated that the French declaration was part of an attempt to
“equate same-sex unions with marriage and to give homosexual couples the chance to adopt or procreate children.”
It also feared that it could endanger other human rights, including the rights of religions to teach that homosexual behavior is morally wrong.
Supporters of the French Declaration
Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Supporters of the Syrian Declaration
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
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