Eighty-five countries including the
United States issued a joint statement at the United Nations Human
Rights Council on Tuesday expressing support for gay rights.
The statement expresses “concern at
continued evidence in every region of acts of violence and related
human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender
identity” and calls on countries “to take steps to end acts of
violence, criminal sanctions and related human rights violations
committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation or
gender identity.”
“Human rights are the inalienable
right of every person, no matter who they are or who they love,”
Eileen Chamberlain Donahue, U.S. ambassador to the council in Geneva,
said in a statement. “The U.S. government is firmly committed to
supporting the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
individuals to lead productive and dignified lives, free from fear
and violence.”
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest gay rights advocate,
applauded the move.
“The Administration has laudably
reaffirmed its commitment to the philosophy that LGBT rights are
human rights by joining today's statement before the U.N. Human
Rights Council,” Solmonese said in a statement. “With over 89
nations jointly participating in the statement, the message is clear
that hate violence against LGBT people should not be tolerated by any
government.”
A 2008 United Nations General Assembly
resolution calling for the universal decriminalization of being gay
was met with an equally forceful, Arab-backed statement opposing it.
The statement, which gathered 66 signatures after it was read in the
chamber, condemned homosexuality: “[Decriminalizing homosexuality
could lead] to the social normalization, and possibly the
legitimization, of many deplorable acts including pedophilia.”
More than 80 countries, mostly in
Africa and the Middle East, outlaw sex between members of the same
sex. Nine countries prescribe death as punishment.