The United Nations has restored a reference to killings due to sexual orientation to a resolution condemning unjustified executions. Last month a UN General Assembly human rights committee majority approved an Arab and African proposal to cut the reference to murders due to sexual orientation from a resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions. The General Assembly has now approved a US amendment to the resolution that restored the reference to sexual orientation with 93 votes in favour, 55 against and 27 abstentions. The amended resolution was then adopted with 122 yes votes, none against and 59 abstentions. Reuters reports the main opposition to the US amendment came from Muslim and African nations, which had led the push to delete the reference to sexual orientation from the resolution last month. In addition to slayings over sexual orientation, the resolution specifies many other types of violence -- killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and killings of refugees, indigenous people and other groups. US Ambassador Susan Rice welcomed the adoption of the amended resolution, saying: "today, the United Nations General Assembly has sent a clear and resounding message that justice and human rights apply to all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation." Boris O. Dittrich from Human Rights Watch says the vote is a relief. "Countries that triedto roll back crucial protections for gay and lesbian people have been defeated. The resolution does justice to gays, lesbians and transgender people in countries where they are targeted for assaults and killings, simply because they love someone of the same sex or because they are transgender. Hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity must be countered just like hate crimes on the basis of race or religion." Prior to the vote, Zimbabwe's UN Ambassador Chitsaka Chipaziwa slammed the US amendment, saying there was no need to refer explicitly to sexual orientation. "We will not have it foisted on us," he said. "We cannot accept this, especially if it entails accepting such practices as bestiality, pedophilia and those other practices many societies would find abhorrent in their value systems.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 22nd December 2010 - 1:28pm