International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the independent NGO, wants to team up with the United Nations as a consultant. That seems reasonable, because IGLHRC has its ear to the ground on good and bad things happening to queers around the world, which was, last we checked, the very place the United Nations is trying to keep safe. So how come the U.N. committee responsible for accrediting NGOs doesn’t want the gays involved?
Because countries like Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, and Pakistan — which sit on the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, alongside the U.S. and Britain — aren’t about to volunteer to be criticized on the global stage for their atrocious gay rights records.
The group, which had applied for “consultative status” at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) three years ago, is an international NGO and advocacy group focusing on protecting the rights of homosexuals and lesbians worldwide.
Diplomats from Western nations that support gay rights complained that Egypt and other developing states that have been criticized by rights groups for discriminating against gays and lesbians prevented the committee from voting on whether to accredit the group, thereby leaving it in limbo.
“IGLHRC is disappointed by the vote of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations to block action on our application,” Cary Alan Johnson, head of the New York-based group, said in a statement to Reuters.
And you thought discrimination of gay rights groups was merely a national, and not an international pastime! It’s like BP inviting members of the Environmental Protection Agency to a sleepover at headquarters; ain’t gonna happen.
(Disclosure: This website has previously sponsored IGLHRC events.)
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Cam
This is the same organization that put Iran on a panel overseeing Women’s rights. So if they don’t care about 50% of the worlds population why would it be a surprise that they don’t give a shit about us?
alan brickman
You mean the same countries that don’t like Isreal don’t like gays too?….big surprise…
John (CA)
The governmental functions of the organization are separate from the humanitarian mission.
Bureaucrats and professional activists run the humanitarian mission. They are usually fairly apolitical and sometimes even helpful. Which is why you have Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay criticizing Malawi and Uganda for their anti-gay behavior.
However, the bureaucrats don’t get to choose who chairs a particular UN committee or council. That is decided by the nations themselves. And since every nation gets only one vote, the little Third World emirates, sheikdoms, and military dictatorships have way more power than they should. The Islamic countries get 57 votes under this system. While the European Union has a mere 27 votes. Care to guess who will win every time?
Think of it as an international version of the United States Senate.
Baxter
@Cam: The UN is such a joke, I don’t know why we even bother with it anymore. We should just expand NATO and leave the UN to the human rights violators.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@alan brickman:Look how quick you got 4 thumbs down, absolutly insane the amount of anti-semitism that is rearing its vile head here on a Gay site lately…
Especially because it is tied into what seems like support for countries where those thumb downers would be subject to jail, torture, or death simply by visiting a site like Queerty……
lovebooks10
The NGO Committee is composed of 19 countries, whose majority are hardliners. This is the place where NGOs get accreditation (UN Status).
The US pushed the vote in favour of IGLHRC supported by UK, Romania, Israel, Colombia, and Peru. While the hardliners won, it was a beautiful moment for gay rights. (You were not there, so you dont know!!) The European Union, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Chile spoke up in favour of IGLHRC while Egypt and friends were totally isolated. I know its not enough, but you can be sure that we are not going to back down on this. We will keep on fighting for LGBT rights!
lovebooks10
PS: The vote could be reversed in one month time, at the end of July in a bigger UN Body. So as I said, the fight has just begun…
jason
Pakistan and Egypt are corrupt cesspools. Sudan is too. It’s shameful that the UN would cuddle up to these vile places.