In a historic vote on 30 June 2016 the UN Human Rights Council created an Independent Expert dedicated to sexual orientation and gender identity issues. The “Independent expert on protection from violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people“, as the official title runs, was warmly welcomed by the LGBTI community around the world. Twenty-three Council members voted for the new position, 18 members against, and six abstained.
During the epic three hour vote, the original resolution proposed jointly by the Governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay was watered down by a series of amendments led by countries like Russia and members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation such as Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which pledged not to coöperate with the Independent Expert. However, it should be noted that non-cooperation with the Council’s mechanisms – although frequent – is fundamentally incompatible with Council membership.
A number of hostile amendments adopted ‘inserted discredited notions of cultural relativism into the text,‘ said Ms Patel of the ISHR.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) pride march. Photo: OHCHR/Joseph Smida
Source: United Nations News Centre – UN agrees to appoint human rights expert on protection of LGBT
For earlier posts on LGBTI see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/lgbti/
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
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