Twelve United Nations agencies joined together in a first-ever effort calling to end discrimination and violence against LGBT people during the 70th General Assembly’s annual general debate this week in New York.
The U.N. joint statement, “Ending Violence and Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex People,” calls for nations to protect LGBT people by instating and enforcing laws, bringing justice for hate crimes, strengthening hate crime prevention and reporting, and recognizing the persecution of LGBTI people as a valid ground for asylum or refuge. The statement is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
In a statement, Charles Radcliffe, chief of global issues at the U.N. Human Rights Office, said the effort to protect LGBT people around the world was “an expression of commitment” by the U.N. agencies and a “powerful call to action for governments around the world” to increase efforts to “tackle” homophobia, transphobia, and “abuses against intersex people.”
The signing organizations include the International Labor Organization, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the U.N. Development Programme, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the U.N. Population Fund, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the U.N. Fund for Children, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, the U.N. Women, the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization, and U.N. AIDS.
The signatories hope that the statement will provide a blueprint to governments around the world, Radcliffe said.
To read the statement, visit www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Discrimination/Pages/JointLGBTIstatement.aspx.
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