Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
Some of the team who were in New York ©ARC International
So why all this fuss about a statement in a big meeting?
The joint statement will be issued as a formal UN document, but that will take a few weeks. It is a really strong text that will be really useful in our advocacy with those states who have signed on (see attachment for statement text and supporters), as well as in our future international advocacy work. Yet again, the UN has provided a space for LGBT activists to be heard when they are ignored by their governments at home.
In my last posting, I wasn’t sure about the level of support for the text that Syria delivered. Well, this isn’t surprising really, as States actively working on that statement were variously telling other government delegations and NGO activists that they had secured 60 or even 62 State endorsements.
Continue reading ‘UN has provided a space for LGBT activists to be heard’
Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
Over the last hour or so something truly extraordinary happened – approximately 120 countries associated themselves with statements to the UN General Assembly for the first time.
At about 1pm, New York time, Argentina started to announce the list of 66 countries that have signed up to support the joint statement on human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity. The States agreed that “everyone is entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without distinction of any kind” and “the principle of non-discrimination implies that human rights norms apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity”.
Continue reading ‘An extraordinary statement of anti-discrimination’
Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
Statement day dawns in New York. We’re not sure quite when it will happen, but in a few hours we will hear an affirmation of human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s that simple. Except that it isn’t – 60 years on from the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we still have to work hard to get countries to say that human rights apply to all people, without discrimination.
But, thanks to the hard work of a lot of people, our count now has 64 countries supporting the joint statement. This is an increase of 10 countries from the last joint statement delivered in 2006 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Continue reading ‘Countdown to delivery of statement against discrimination at UN’
Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
I’m in New York for the delivery at the UN General Assembly of a joint statement on human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity. It doesn’t sound very important does it, a statement? It’s not a resolution or even a declaration – the usual focus of our work at the UN. But nonetheless, this is a huge step forward for LGBT rights.
Over 60 countries, from all geographic regions, have now endorsed the joint statement addressing human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Checking my email on arrival in the Big Apple, I saw that another state had endorsed the statement.
Continue reading ‘A huge step forward for LGBT rights’
Friederike Behr blogs from Russia
It is the fourth week of the trial, and journalists, lawyers and victims greet each other nearly like old friends. They have a cigarette together or chat together in the corridors of the court building, every now and then being reminded to keep their voices low in order not to disturb the other hearings going on at the same time. The journalists comment on each others reporting and whether they would be satisfied with the evidence provided so far, were they members of the jury.
From my corner on the bench among the journalists I can see the jury is really focussed on what is being said and shown to them. They are made up of middle-aged men and women, several of them obviously from the Caucasus or other non-Russian ethnicity.
Continue reading ‘Anna Politkovskaya murder trial – witnesses for the prosecution’
