RATHER than attempt a roundup of the year’s major events, the editors would like to highlight one event that stands out as a major milestone: the United Nations Human Rights Council’s adoption of a resolution last June 17 on violence and discrimination against GLBT people. It was the first time the UN had adopted a resolution on GLBT issues. The Council instructed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to carry out a study by December 2011 that details “discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, in all regions of the world.” Twenty-three countries voted in favor of the resolution, nineteen voted against, and three abstained.
What follows is the introductory statement for the resolution by South African Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador J. M. Matjila.
Mr. President,
I have the honour to introduce resolution L9 Rev. 1 entitled “Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity.” South Africa believes that dialogue is an extremely powerful tool when dealing with difficult subject matter or situations. Our history has taught us the importance of dialogue and the need to engage and listen to one another.
South Africa believes that no-one should be subjected to discrimination or violence based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. No-one should have to fear for their lives because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. No-one should be denied services because of sexual orientation and gender identity. The resolution before us today does not seek to impose values on Member States but it seeks to initiate a dialogue which will contribute towards ending discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
In South Africa non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is constitutionally guaranteed, yet we still have challenges related to violent acts against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. We believe that inter-governmental dialogue on this subject could provide a platform to find ways to address this subject.
South Africa is a multiracial, multicultural, multi-religious society in which all enjoy fundamental freedoms. Although South Africa is a predominantly Christian society, about eighty percent, all religions are treated the same. Every time when our Parliament opens, all religious leaders, Hindu, Islamic, Judaism, and Christian, are given equal time to pray for our Parliament. South Africa is predominantly a Black country, about 79 per cent of the population, but all racial groups enjoy equal rights and fundamental freedom.
All of us who were engaged in liberation struggles, without exception, drew our aspiration from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose very opening preambular paragraphs became a clarion call to fight for freedom. It says, and I quote, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right and that everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in that Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status.”
When we were imprisoned, tortured, and forced into exile, we received moral, political, and material support from all sections of society all over the world. We never said we cannot accept your support due to gender identity. Our migrants, refugees, and those who are continuously visited by severe hunger, receive help from everyone and we never say, we don’t want help from you due to your sexual orientation and gender identity. When we seek jobs, investments, capacity building, and technology, we never say only from that section of society and not from that section of society, depending on gender identity.
There is no region or regional organisation that has called for or has tolerance to discrimination. There is no region one knows, that is opposed to dialogue. The United Nations is our common Parliament—the Parliament of the World. The UN Human Rights Council is a world parliament to discuss human rights issues—complex issues, difficult and sensitive issues. To conduct dialogue.
The preambular paragraph in L9 Rev. 1 recalls the principles that we all embrace: universality, interdependence, indivisibility, and the inter-relatedness of human rights and concerns of acts of violence and discrimination against individuals in all our regions, because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
This resolution calls for the UN Human Rights Council to offer the opportunity for all of us to have fact-based dialogue relating to discrimination against those who have a different sexual orientation and a different gender identity. Consequently, the resolution requests the High Commissioner for Human Rights to commission a fact-based study in all our regions and for the outcome of that study to form the basis of the panel discussion during the 19th Session in 2012.
This resolution enjoins us to dialogue about the discrimination and violence meted to our brothers and sisters in all regions and all countries of the world, including my own, whose only crime seems to be their choice in life. This dialogue will be about reaching out to one another, understanding one another in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” …
As the main sponsor of the resolution, we would like to mention that the following countries have sponsored the resolution: Brazil, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Austria, Finland, Timor-Leste, Germany, Serbia, Belgium, Albania, United States of America, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Netherlands, Portugal, Czech Republic, Israel, Canada, Argentina, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, and Greece. I believe Norway, France, Sweden, and Slovenia are already listed as co-sponsors.
South Africa hopes that the resolution will be adopted by the Council today and that the ensuing study and panel discussion will contribute positively to the elimination of discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
