UN vote to accept execution of gays

The United Nations has removed a plea for lesbians, gays and bisexuals not to be executed in a narrow vote.

For the last 10 years sexual orientation has been included in a list of discriminatory grounds for executions – gay rights activists say the vote to remove that listing is “dangerous and disturbing.”

The UN resolution urges countries to protect the right to life of all people, calling on them to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds. Sexual orientation was previously listed as one of these forms of discrimination, alongside ethnicity, religious belief and linguistic minorities.

Others protected by the resolution were human rights defenders (like journalists, lawyers and demonstrators), street children and members of indigenous communities.

But now sexual orientation has been taken out of the list. The amendment was supported by Benin in Africa on behalf of the African Group in the UN General Assembly. It passed on a narrow vote of 79 for, 70 against , 17 abstentions and 26 absent.

Some of those voting to remove sexual orientation were countries where gays are known to be or thought to be executed or summarily killed including Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq.

The UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and many European countries voted in favour of gays.

Cary Alan Johnson, Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, said: “This vote is a dangerous and disturbing development. It essentially removes the important recognition of the particular vulnerability faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – a recognition that is crucial at a time when 76 countries around the world criminalise homosexuality, five consider it a capital crime and countries like Uganda are considering adding the death penalty to their laws criminalising homosexuality.”

From http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory/4319/18/11/2010/countries-vote-to-accept-execution-of-gays.aspx

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That's awful :frown:

Ooops... I misunderstood the title. My bad :frown:

See my later post!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 3

Joinedup

Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq.

no doubt it'd be islamophobic of me to comment

Reply 4

member520746

Original post by kpwxx

Ok, misleading title or what.

But still, I don't really get why they removed it... all it is, from what I can make out, is them saying 'You should investigate if someone is killed because they're gay'... surely they should investigate if ANYONE is killed, regardless of the motive lol.

That's not a misleading title. The UN has ruled that it accepts making homosexuality an executable offence. It is accepting the execution of gays, as in, they won't act against any country where that is the law.

Reply 5

sandys1000

Yes, we were discussing this in the HoC. It's absolutely ridiculous. If you look at the list of how countries voted, its almost a perfect division between civilsed and uncivilised.

Reply 6

Democracy

The UN is basically a useless talkshop which plays host to some of the vilest regimes on the planet whilst preaching universal human rights. It's pretty sad really.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 7

laut_biru

How did this even get put to vote?

Sigh..

Reply 8

laut_biru

How did this even get put to vote?

Sigh..

Reply 9

kpwxx

Original post by JCC-MGS

Sorry, I must have completely misunderstood the article. I didn't find the article clear about that, it's almost certainly just me being stupid though.

If that's the case then that is very bad. Particularly as they can't claim 'we don't want to interfere' when they continue to intervene for other things (ethnicity, religious belief etc.); why should they allow it for sexual orientation.

What...

Are you serious? This is wrong

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 12

Billydodger

Original post by sandys1000

Yes, we were discussing this in the HoC. It's absolutely ridiculous. If you look at the list of how countries voted, its almost a perfect division between civilsed and uncivilised.

Where can I see a list of which countries voted for and against?

Reply 13

Cinqueta

Anyone notice that the SANE countries voted in favour of gays, and the insane countries like Uganda and Iraq voted against? Why do these countries expect help from us when they want to execute the people who save their lives?

Uganda certainly isn't going to be getting any charity from me.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 14

Keckers

Disgusting.

This essentially removes homosexuals from the category of being human.

Reply 15

Folderol

Where are TSR's Islamists on this?

Reply 16

Mujeriego

Original post by Folderol

Where are TSR's Islamists on this?

We're too busy voting at UN delegations.

And it's Muslim. Not Islamist. :yy:

Reply 17

Ammelia

That is just wrong :angry:

Reply 18

taigan

No it isn't wrong. Sorry to disagree with practically everyone on this thread, but the fact that this was voted to pass means that the majority of nations in the UN are in favour of it, thus, their opinion is the majority. They are the norm, if you will. I'm not saying that I agree with this, because I definitely do not. However, the fact that you think you can impose your beliefs on people of other cultures is not in spirit of the UK's self-proclaimed multicultural nature. This is no different then countries who ban alcohol, drugs etc.

Reply 19

i.am.lost

And there was me thinking we were moving forward with LGBT rights. This is about 20 steps back.

I'm appalled.

EDIT: What the ____ ? Someone actually negged this :s-smilie: