UN sparks LGBT rights debate: A Glimmer of Hope for Many

The United Nations Human Rights council held a panel this Wednesday to discuss ending discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The panel follows a resolution passed by the council in June 2011 which called for universal rights for the LGBT community.

It was led by South Africa, Brazil, moderated by the Ambassador of South Africa, and featured panelists from Brazil, Pakistan, Sweden and the United States.

The panel was opened by Ban Ki-Moon's video, in which he calls discrimination and violence against the LGBT a "monumental tragedy" and "a stain upon our collective conscience".

After his message the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, presented her report on discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity:

"The story of the United Nations is a story of progress in the fight against discrimination. It is a story that is incomplete, as we continue to work to make good on the promise enshrined in our Universal Declaration: a world where 'all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights'. Today we all have an opportunity to begin together a new chapter dedicated to ending violence and discrimination against all people, irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity"

All panelists agreed that the abuses occur all over the world and that every government has the obligation to protect their citizens and their rights, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

A statement addressed to the Human Rights Council by the International LGBTI Association said:

"We are here, not to ask for our rights, since these are already our birthright as human beings, but to urge States to fulfill their responsibilities to end human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. (...) Around the world, 76 countries still criminalise us because of how we live or who we love. In extreme cases, we face the death penalty (…) often these laws are the relics of colonial-era legislation, rather than the expression of a pre-existing homophobic or transphobic culture. (…) It is time for the Council to fulfill its responsibility to promote and protect the human rights of all persons without discrimination, and to develop a mechanism to ensure sustained ongoing attention to the systemic human rights violations on these grounds."

Activists from diverse Human Rights associations who were participating offered similar comments. Leonin Germaine of the Rainbow Project, Philippines said:

"As Asian LGBTQIs, we are reclaiming our rightful space in our respective countries and call on the United Nations system and international human rights mechanisms to ask all its member States to promote and protect of the equal rights of all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity."

And Mr Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel from the LGBT Centre of Mongolia stated:

"We are silently suffering under familial and social pressures, threats from ultra-nationalists, lack of knowledge on sexual orientation and gender identity among the general public and most important of all, under the lawless environment. It is Member States' job to represent every single citizen of their countries in the Human Rights Council and they must not let the sexual minorities suffer silently any longer than we have been."

Hillary Clinton made LGBT rights the focal point of her speech on International Human Rights Day last year at the UN

While support for equal rights regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity increase, some countries are strongly opposed to them. Notably Pakistan and the OIC who had declared that they would be boycotting the panel and "would not accept its considerations and recommendations". Yet a certain number of their representatives came along in order to voice their disapprobation against the panel, leading to a heated debate between the OIC, a majority of the African countries and the other countries present.

According to the Pakistani ambassador, homosexuality can lead to "paedophilia and incest, having a negative impact on health and family values" (the Pakistani penal code punishes same-sex relationships with life imprisonment, but in some regions LGBT people still face the death penalty). Senegal held the same arguments, speaking for a 'majority' of African countries. Both Pakistan and Senegal say that they concerned about the "introduction into Human Rights Council of controversial notions like sexual orientation and gender identity". They are also asking for the respect of "cultural differences", which are stated in the Vienna Declaration. But as Sunila Abeysekera (a member of Women Living Under Muslim Laws) said:

"The OIC is passing from the principle that religion must be 'borne in mind' with regard to human rights, to making supreme a single interpretation of religion in international laws. As powerfully expressed by Navi Pillay at the start of this panel discussion, the Vienna Declaration comes out clearly on the side of human rights."

Despite the opposition of the OIC and the majority of African countries, this panel is a historic first for the defense and protection of the LGBT community around the world.