Leaders in the African continent have made a strong demand to the United Nations (UN) to immediately suspend the appointment of a new UN expert on LGBT rights, stressing that his mission to report on anti-gay violence had nothing to do with human rights.
The appointment of Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand was made by
the UN Human Rights Council in late September. Vitit is an international law
professor who is appointed to examine abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) people globally.
The president of Botswana who spoke on behalf of the African
continent to the UN General Assembly Committee that it was not necessary nor
important for the council to start looking into “sexual orientation and gender
identity”.
“We wish to state that those two notions are not and should
not be linked to existing international human rights instruments,” said Charles
Ntwaagae.
It was learnt that the 54-country African Group offered a
draft UN resolution requesting for proper discussions on the lawfulness of the new
expert’s specialists obligation saying that such appointment should be
suspended for now.
The measure is expected to come up for a vote on Tuesday.
“We therefore call for the suspension of the activities of
the appointed independent expert pending the determination of this issue,” said
Ntwaagae.
Currently, about 73 nations, which is made up of 40% of all
UN member states still prohibit in strong terms the homosexuality. In Africa
alone, 33 countries have anti-gay laws including Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and
Mauritania.
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