UN URGES AFRICAN UNION TO RESPECT GAY RIGHTS
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged African leaders to respect gay rights. Discrimination based on sexual orientation had been ignored or even sanctioned by many states for too long, Mr Ban told an African Union summit.Homosexuality is illegal in many African countries - a situation which has drawn increasing criticism from activists and the West.
Ban Ki-moon told delegates that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity "prompted governments to treat people as second class citizens or even criminals".
Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries, including key Western allies such as Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Botswana.Both the US and UK have recently warned they would use foreign aid to push for homosexuality to be decriminalised on the socially conservative continent.
Source: Agency
Ban Ki-moon told delegates that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity "prompted governments to treat people as second class citizens or even criminals".Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries, including key Western allies such as Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Botswana.Both the US and UK have recently warned they would use foreign aid to push for homosexuality to be decriminalised on the socially conservative continent.
FOR THE 1ST TIME UN BACKS GAY RIGHT
Human Rights Council narrowly approves resolution expressing "grave concern at acts of violence and discrimination"
GENEVA - The United Nations endorsed the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people for the first time ever Friday, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the U.S. and other backers and decried by some African and Muslim countries.The declaration was cautiously worded, expressing "grave concern" about abuses because of sexual orientation and commissioning a global report on discrimination against gays.
But activists called it an important shift on an issue that has divided the global body for decades, and they credited the Obama administration's push for gay rights at home and abroad.- "This represents a historic moment to highlight the human rights abuses and violations that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face around the world based solely on who they are and whom they love," US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement.
Following tense negotiations, members of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council narrowly voted in favour of the declaration put forward by South Africa, with 23 votes in favour and 19 against. Backers included the US, the European Union, Brazil and other Latin American countries.Those against included Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Pakistan. China, Burkina Faso and Zambia abstained, Kyrgyzstan didn't vote and Libya was suspended from the rights body earlier.
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
