The Harms of the UN’s LGBT Agenda

By Contributor | May 10, 2011

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, released a video last week that called for renewed vigor in combatting discrimination against LGBT persons.

The video is a clear statement of the UN system’s position on issues relating to “sexual orientation” (an as-yet undefined and controversial term in international law).

Directly addressing the controversy related to the term, Ms Pillay claimed that:

“…the principle that no one should suffer discrimination on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity is already fully integrated into our current international human rights standards. States have an obligation to… protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation”

The fact that as recently as March 2011, the UN member states battled aggressively over the idea of sexual orientation as a protected non-discrimination category points to the obvious inaccuracy in Ms. Pillay’s statement.

Along with the video, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a pamphlet that compiles the statements of the UN system (from independent experts to executive directors of UNAIDS and UNDP) related to issues of LGBT discrimination. Notably, the document lacks any reference to a democratically negotiated text or international consensus document- because there are none to quote.

The video and document released last week are indications that the UN system is gradually trying to build international obligations related to discrimination against homosexuality without the consent of its member states – a troubling development that threatens the legitimacy of, and states’ trust in, the UN system itself.

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