United Nations Committee Rejects LGBT Organization

by Dana Rudolph · 2010-06-05 08:33:00 UTC
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A group of countries that sit on the United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations have prevented the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) from being granted “consultative status.”

IGLHRC advocates for people who experience discrimination or abuse on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Consultative status would give IGLHRC the right to attend meetings of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), submit written statements, and participate in a variety of other U.N. functions. Over 3000 NGO’s hold consultative status with ECOSOC.

Of the 19 NGO Committee members, Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Pakistan, China, Russia, Angola, Burundi and Sudan were among those voting against IGLHRC, according to Reuters. Turkey abstained. The United States and Britain supported IGLHRC.

There’s still hope, however. Reuters reports that the U.S. and Europeans will push for ECOSOC itself (of which the NGO committee is part) to accredit IGLHRC.

What Reuters failed to mention, however, was that that strategy has been successful several times before in granting consultative status to LGBT groups. The U.N. Economic and Social Council last July granted consultative status to a Brazilian LGBT group, and did so in 2007 and 2008 for Canadian, Swedish and Spanish groups.

ECOSOC is the U.N.’s central forum for international economic and social issues. It develops policy recommendations for “promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” ECOSOC boasts on its Web site that its scope covers “over 70 per cent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system.”

Recent incidents in Malawi, Pakistan, and Uganda underscore the need to ensure human rights for LGBT people around the world. The U.S. State Department is already speaking out to protect those rights. Let us hope they continue to work with ECOSOC so that LGBT human rights organizations with a global reach are able to put their expertise to good use.

Photo credit: Scazon

Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian, a blog and resource directory for LGBT parents.

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