Human rights under fire internationally

Human rights are a critical component to a civilized world. At the United Nations recently, all the member nations have been meeting in the first-ever session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) devoted to dealing with sexual orientation and violence. The member states, including the United States, have been discussing and agreeing on ways to tackle violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation.Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has long been urging that countries cannot continue to overlook such grave violations of human rights and said last week,“We see a pattern of violence and discrimination directed at people just because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. This is a monumental tragedy for those affected — and a stain on our collective conscience. It is also a violation of international law.” The secretary general went on to inform the Human Rights Council that a historic shift is under way as more countries are seeing the gravity of this type of violence and discrimination. “To those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, let me say: You are not alone. Your struggle for an end to violence and discrimination is a shared struggle. Any attack on you is an attack on the universal values of the United Nations that I have sworn to defend and uphold. Today, I stand with you and I call upon all countries and people to stand with you, too,” he said. However, many of the member nations have been forced out into the open revealing outdated and violent anti-human rights laws. At least 76 countries still have laws that criminalize same-sex relations, or contain vague prohibitions that are applied in a discriminatory way to prosecute lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people (it is worth noting that the United States was not immune to criticism here). These antiquated sexuality laws and discriminatory practices not only breach international human rights law, but also cause unnecessary suffering, reinforce stigma, fuel violence, and undermine efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. For example, LGBT rights still face opposition even within the U.N. “I know some will resist what we are saying. They may argue that homosexuality and expressions of transgender identity conflict with local cultural or traditional values, or with religious teachings, or that they run counter to public opinion,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Geneva meeting. Speaking on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Pakistan’s representative told the meeting that it had consistently and firmly opposed the controversial notion of sexual orientation, which was vague and misleading and had no agreed definition and no legal foundation in international law. “Licentious behavior promoted under the concept of sexual orientation was against the fundamental teachings of various religions, including Islam,” he added (this coming from a culture that allows, even condones, sodomy of preteen boys as not being homosexual and therefore not against the teachings of Islam).But Pillay is undeterred in her fight for what’s right, stressing that “the balance between tradition and culture, on the one hand, and universal human rights, on the other, must be struck in favor of rights,” adding that “no personal opinion, no religious belief, no matter how deeply held or widely shared, can ever justify depriving another human being of his or her basic rights.” Pillay also presented the first-ever U.N. report that reveals that violence against LGBT people takes place in all regions, many times with consent of governments. Commonly reported incidents include targeted killings, violent assaults and acts of torture and sexual violence. It also shows that discriminatory practices affect the ability of individuals to enjoy their human rights on a daily basis in their workplace and at school, where they run the risk of being bullied, leading LGBT people to isolation, depression and in some cases suicide. The report calls on member states to improve their investigation and prosecution of homophobic and transphobic violence to bring perpetrators to justice, and to “change discriminatory laws that treat people as criminals on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” Think this has nothing to do with the United States? The sodomy laws in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas were only recently declared unconstitutional and there are still laws on the books in nine other states which should have been taken off the books — but as of yet are not. And we still have laws all over the United States that criminalize fornication (sexual intercourse by unmarried persons), adultery, and other same-sex behaviors which, once again, lead to violence based on sexual orientation. Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.