Brussels, 17 June, 2011 — “A great day, to celebrate such an historical step forward thanks to a good coordination and collaboration of all LGBTI activists”, was Gloria Careaga’s, Co-Secretary-General of ILGA (the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) reaction in Mexico-city today, after the United Nations passed its first LGBTI-rights related resolution ever in the morning hours in Geneva. The Resolution passed in the 17th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). While initiated and led by South Africa, with the support of Brazil, it calls for a worldwide study and dialogue around the phenomena of violence and discrimination against LGBTI people led by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The resolution also calls for an International Panel on the topic to be held during the 19th UN Human Rights Council in March 2012.
Careaga was seconded on the other side of the Atlantic in Brussels by ILGA’s other co-secretary General Renato Sabbadini, who thanked the governments of South Africa and Brazil for their courageous leadership in creating a broad international support for the resolution. “What started in March as a less fortunate text, which any of the 76 countries persecuting people on ground of sexual orientation or gender identity could have signed, has turned into an extraordinary resolution which acknowledges the existence of violence against LGBTI people and opens a very promising path for future actions” Sabbadini said.
Sabbadini also noted the “extraordinary work of LGBTI human rights activists and NGO’s who have been engaging in constant dialogue with the resolution’s promotors and stakeholders the last two weeks in Geneva and around the world”. Member groups and associates of international LGBTI Rights networks like ILGA have lobbied national governments to help ensure a majority in favor of the resolution when it would come to a vote. Careaga noted the outstanding work of the international LGBTI networks with representatives in Geneva, who till the last moment lobbied the country representatives of the UNHRC member states, in conjunction with the South African and Brazilian promoters. She pointed out that LGBTI activists have been waiting anxiously for almost ten years for a resolution like this. “The signatories finally put aside any cultural and traditional arguments against our rights while at the same time they set out the trajectory of the work we have to continue doing in the different regions of the world to combat homophobia”, she said.
Mario Kleinmoedig
Press Officer ILGA