It’s been a good year for making strides toward international gay rights, all things considered. Hillary Clinton made a great speech before the UN in Geneva championing gay rights as synonymous with human rights last week.
And today, more progress, as the world’s top governing body has released its first-ever report on the status of human rights (full PDF here).
After reviewing reports of the violence and oppression that LGBT people have endured in various corners of the globe, the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that,”a pattern of human rights violations emerges that demands a response… Further action is now needed, especially at the national level, if individuals are to be better protected from such human rights violations in future.”
And what are they going to do about it? Well, the High Commissioner recommends that UN states “investigate promptly all reported killings and other serious incidents of violence perpetrated against individuals because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity… and hold perpetrators accountable, and establish systems for the recording and reporting of such incidents.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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We’d prefer that he mandated such actions, but we’ll take incremental steps forward over big steps backward any day. Now how do we get the nations that were not quite tickled pink by Clintons speech to read the damned report?
Kate
While I’m not positive, I’m pretty sure the UN can’t “mandate” anything. It can make recommendations and strongly encourage change, but it doesn’t have the power to force change. National sovereignty is a big deal with them. Still, such recommendations following this report may carry a lot of wait and could, in some ways, increase the likelihood of LGBT rights being more directly adressed in future UN resolutions. That’s still ultimately another “recommendation,” but at that point other factors would be involved that would allow such a recommendation to have a stronger effect without infringing on the rights or sovereignty of any one nation.
Kev C
They seem to understand the scope of the problem, but gosh, so darn toothless.
bagooka
“Now how do we get the nations that were not quite tickled pink by Clintons speech to read the damned report?”
Threaten them in diplomatic ways.